by WorldTribune Staff, May 1, 2018

Nearly 90 percent of U.S. Border Patrol agents support President Donald Trump’s border wall and 95 percent say changes are needed to the government’s “catch and release” immigration policy, a new survey found.

A survey of 600 agents in two of the Border Patrol’s busiest sectors found 89 percent say a “wall system in strategic locations is necessary to securing the border.” Just 7 percent disagreed.

The survey was conducted by the National Border Patrol Council, the agents’ union.

The Washington Times, in a report last month, said the findings “appear to undercut the argument of congressional Democrats,” who released a report in March “concluding that line agents didn’t support Trump’s plans for a wall.”

Brandon Judd, president of the NBPC, said that survey’s results directly contradict a March 22 report by Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which looked at data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection – the Homeland Security Agency that oversees the Border Patrol – and concluded that agents didn’t want more fencing.

“There are many pieces to the border security puzzle and – contrary to the minority staff report – the survey clearly shows frontline Border Patrol agents identify a wall system in strategic locations as a vital and necessary piece of the border security puzzle,” Judd said.

Agents were even more adamant that the catch-and-release policy wasn’t working, the Washington Times noted.

“A staggering 95 percent of agents surveyed said the government’s inability to hold illegal immigrants while they await deportation serves as a magnet for still more illegal border crossers.”

  Border patrol agents overwhelmingly back Trump on wall, WorldTribune.com