Former President Donald Trump on Sunday proposed hiring 10,000 additional Border Patrol agents and giving them a $10,000 retention and signing bonus.
Trump made his pledge during a rally in Prescott Valley, Arizona, roughly 260 miles north of the state's border with Mexico. He accepted an endorsement from the agents' union, the National Border Patrol Council, which is a longtime Trump backer that endorsed him during his prior two campaigns.
Trump has made illegal immigration the focus of his campaign and blamed Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democrat opponent, for a record spike in unauthorized crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border. He frequently denounces people entering the U.S. illegally as invaders and criminals, and he has vowed to stage the largest deportation operation in American history if he is elected president again.
According to the White House, a bipartisan immigration bill killed earlier this year would have funded 1,500 personnel at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes the Border Patrol.
At the rally, Trump called the legislation "a horrible bill."
"If we allow 'border czar' Harris to win this election, every city, every community in this great country is going to go to hell," union president Paul Perez said as he stood next to Trump onstage with a group of agents.
Trump has vowed to complete a border wall if he's returned to the White House. He routinely trumpets his comparatively low numbers of border crossings with the much higher ones during Biden's first three years in office.
On Sunday, Trump said that Border Patrol agents deserved the higher pay and bonuses and bemoaned how he said Biden and Harris had neglected the border.