National Border Patrol Council President Paul Perez said agents’ morale is “through the roof” upon President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory.
Perez told Fox News, “The morale is through the roof. We’ve received hundreds of calls, texts, emails, just saying how happy the agents are.”
“There are a lot of agents that had originally said that they would retire if President Trump did not win. And now those same agents are saying they’re going to hold back on their retirement because they want to serve under this administration again, because they know exactly how it was during this first administration, and they know this one’s going to be even better,” he said.
Perez believes that Trump’s victory will lead to greater recruitment in the agency.
“We’ve always had a recruiting problem. And so right now, with President Trump coming into office, a lot of people are going to want to do this job. A lot of people have shown interest previously, but they were hesitant to apply and work for the previous administration,” he said. “So under Trump, we’re going to have a good amount of recruits to choose from.”
Border Patrol agents previously threatened to leave the agency if Vice President Kamala Harris became president.
One agent told The New York Post, “Lots of guys who can retire will go. If Trump wins, they’ll stay.”
“We will have another exodus just because we will have a bunch of 20-year agents saying peace out,” another agent said.
The Border Patrol Union endorsed Trump in October, writing on social media, “On behalf of the 16,000 men and women represented by the National Border Patrol Council, we strongly support and endorse Donald J. Trump for President of the United States.”
