Border Patrol union president Brandon Judd to Fox: Republicans are against the border bill for “political purposes”
After Fox and Speaker Johnson claimed that the Border Patrol union supported the border bill for financial reasons, Judd says he understands that Republicans are objecting for “political purposes”
Published
The Border Patrol Union endorsed the bipartisan border agreement on Monday, February 5. That evening, Fox host Laura Ingraham and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) claimed that they were supporting the agreement because of the pay structure in the bill. Judd made no mention of that in his appearance on Fox, instead praising Trump and saying that Republicans were only opposing the bill for political reasons.
Citation From the February 6, 2024, edition of Fox Business Network's Varney & Co.
STUART VARNEY (HOST): National Border Patrol Council president Brandon Judd is with me. You endorsed this bill, but in the past, you said we don't need legislation. We just need the president to enforce the law. So what changed your mind?
BRANDON JUDD (NATIONAL BORDER PATROL COUNCIL): Well, nothing's changed my mind. I still agree with that. We need the president to enforce the law. But absent him enforcing the law, we do need bills that's going to force him to do that. I'm looking at this from real-world application. Right now, as we speak, there are no caps to illegal immigration. As many people that cross the border illegally, we have to take them into custody. Under this bill, there would be a cap at five thousand. So if we look at December, we had twelve thousand daily apprehensions. This would cap it at five thousand. And that cap does not mean that we release five thousand. But then let's look at yesterday. Yesterday, we apprehended sixty-five hundred people that entered the country illegally. Though of those sixty-five hundred people, at least 85% are being released. Under this bill, at least 60% of those people would have been held in custody pending a removal proceeding. So there's a lot less people that get released under this bill. So there's a lot of things in there. There's a lot of, mechanisms that are good. So real-world application. If we were to apply this bill today, we wouldn't be releasing even close to what we're releasing right now.
VARNEY: Have you talked to Trump about this bill?
JUDD: I haven't. I haven't. Look, I understand where he's coming from. I understand that he's saying that what I did was amazing, and it was amazing. And I fully support everything that he did on the border, and I fully support what he's going to do on the border. But this bill transcends administrations. This will go beyond Biden, it will go beyond Trump. It will go beyond the next president. So I'm looking at this from the standpoint of we need something that is going to continue to go past and not just executive orders. What he's going to do is going to be amazing. What he did was amazing, but we need bills that are going to last past President Trump.
VARNEY: If this bill fails, wouldn't that force President Biden to start using executive orders?
JUDD: No. I don't think that he's ever going to use executive orders. I think that he'll go into the election, saying that, hey. I'm gonna – I'm gonna continue on what I'm doing. That's what he's done to this point. So he can't afford to lose his base. If this bill were to pass, he would then throw his hands in the air and say, hey, Congress did it. And I understand that from a political standpoint. I understand politics, and I can understand why Republicans would go against this for political purposes. I get that. There is that aspect to it. Again, I am going to look at real-world application as it would pertain to the border today.
VARNEY: Biden says impeachment efforts against Homeland Security chief Mayorkas, are baseless and unconstitutional. What do you make of those comments?
JUDD: Yeah. That that's It's a flat-out lie. They are not baseless. They are not unconstitutional. All you have to do is look at what Majorcas is currently doing on the back end. Every single time that we release people into the United States, the moment that they do not show up to their court appearance, they are in violation of that release order. He by law, he is required to go after those individuals, and he's not doing it. If they're deported in abstentia, he's required to go after those individuals to ensure that they leave the country. He's not doing that. That's what the law requires him to do. He is not following the law. And because he's not doing that, he has to be held responsible.
VARNEY: If he is impeached and removed, Nothing changes.
JUDD: No. No. It won't change, but it will at least show that people will be held responsible if they don't do the job. And if the next person doesn't do it, the next person should be impeached as well.
VARNEY: Alright. Brandon Judd, good stuff. Thanks very much for joining us. I know we're gonna see you again soon. Thank you, Brandon.