Editors Note: This article has been updated to include comment from National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd and to clarify the content of an email provided to the Washington Examiner.
President Trump will host dozens of Border Patrol agents at the White House Friday afternoon, according to an email provided to the Washington Examiner.
The event is expected to be a celebration of union President Brandon Judd’s reelection, according to two sources, one a Department of Homeland Security source and the other a Customs & Border Protection official.
Judd endorsed Trump in March 2016 and has largely backed the Trump administration’s agenda in its first three years as it relates to border security and operations. Trump, in turn, has been supportive of Judd, who speaks for the union’s roughly 18,000 members. Several union officials told the Washington Examiner they fully expect Judd to win a third term when delegates cast their votes Thursday, and the union and White House will capitalize on the moment with a joint event to affirm the relationship.
In an interview Friday, after this article was originally published Thursday evening, Judd denied that the event, which has since been put on the president’s Friday schedule, was in any way a celebration of his reelection.
“This visit is all about family members of the agents, to have the president talk to them about what he is doing to secure the border,” Judd said. He denied that any union officials had said the event was designed to “capitalize” on his reelection.
Judd and dozens of members of the National Border Patrol Council, the union for Border Patrol officers, are in Washington for the union’s annual meeting this week, as well as the election of leadership, which happens every three years.
The event would mark the first time Trump has hosted a large group consisting mainly of Border Patrol agents. In this case, most are union members who work part time as agents and also represent fellow rank-and-file agents in legal matters. Last January, Trump hosted a handful of senior Border Patrol union officials, including Judd, for a press conference in the White House briefing room.
At the 2019 NBPC conference, Trump recorded a personal video touting his support for Judd, though the union president was not up for reelection at the time. One senior union official said he believed that the decision to have so many agents visit the White House on Friday is just a political stunt meant to scratch the backs of union leadership and Trump. It’s not clear whether the union or White House requested the event. Judd said senior official he has spoke with denied they said the event was a “political stunt.”
The agents visiting Washington this week work across the country on the southwest, southeast, and northern borders. The Border Patrol comprises approximately 21,000 employees, three-quarters of whom are rank-and-file agents. Border Patrol is a division of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security. NBPC is a part of the American Federation of Government Employees.
