Border Patrol Union Chief Urges Congress to Pass Border Bill Despite GOP’s ‘Political Purposes’ In Opposing It

National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd joined Stuart Varney on Fox Business Network on Tuesday to discuss his group’s endorsement of the U.S. Senate’s bipartisan border bill.

“In the past, you’ve said we don’t need legislation. We just need the president to enforce the law. So what changed your mind?” Varney asked Judd.

“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,” Judd shot back, adding:

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 they cross the border illegally. We have to take them into custody. Under this bill, there would be a cap at 5,000. So if we look at December, we had 12,000 daily apprehensions.

This would cap it at 5,000. And that cap does not mean that we release 5,000. But then let’s look at yesterday. Yesterday we apprehended 6,500 people that entered the country illegally. Though of those 6,500 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 proceedings.

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.

“Have you talked to Trump about this bill?” Varney asked.

“I haven’t, look, I understand where he’s coming from. I understand that he’s saying that what he did was amazing and it was amazing. And I fully support everything that he did on the border,” Judd replied, adding:

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.

Notably, the Border Patrol Union led by Judd endorsed Trump in both 2016 and 2020.

“If this bill fails, wouldn’t that force President Biden to start using executive orders?” Varney followed up.

“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 going to I’m going to 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,” Judd argued, concluding:

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.

The interview ended with Varney asking Judd if he supported the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, which Judd wholeheartedly endorsed.

Watch the clip above via Fox Business.