The official union of the U.S. Border Patrol refuted President Joe Biden’s claim during Thursday night’s presidential debate that the organization had endorsed him.
While seeking to justify his handling of the country’s southern border, Biden said, “The border patrol endorsed me, endorsed my position.”
The National Border Patrol Council swiftly posted on X, “To be clear, we never have and never will endorse Biden.”
Here’s the clip of Joe Biden claiming he was endorsed by the Border Patrol.
Another lie. https://t.co/zuhka6RW5V pic.twitter.com/sVLhbpRFit
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 28, 2024
In February, the Border Patrol Council did endorse a Senate bill that would have sent more resources to secure the border.
“This is absolutely better than what we currently have,” National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd told ABC News at the time.
Biden also supported the legislation, but it lacked the votes needed to get it passed in the Senate.
Earlier this month, Biden issued an executive order to address the border crisis setting limits on the number of migrants who can cross illegally into the country.
Have Biden’s immigration policies made the U.S. more dangerous?
Biden’s executive order calls for the border to shut down between the ports of entry when illegal crossings average 2,500 per day.
“It’s really pro-illegal immigration. … It doesn’t do anything. It makes it worse than what you have right now,” Trump said of the order in front of a raucous Phoenix, Arizona, crowd.
According to CBP, there were a record 2.48 million total encounters at the southern border in fiscal year 2023, a half million more than all four years under Trump combined.
By comparison, Trump’s worst year for illegal border crossings was approximately 852,000 in 2019, while the other three years the numbers ranged between 300,000 and 400,000.
Altogether, under Biden there have been over 8.1 million border encounters, which does not include the 1.6 million estimated so-called gotaways that escaped apprehension.
