Border Patrol union chief prefers courts decide Trump wall emergency

PHOENIX – It’s the job of the courts to determine whether President Donald Trump’s emergency declaration for the U.S.-Mexico border should stand or be blocked, not lawmakers, said a former Arizona agent with growing ties to the White House.

“They should let this play out in the court system. That’s where you decide,” Brandon Judd, president of the border patrol agents’ union, said Monday on KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News.

Opponents of the national emergency declaration appear to have enough Senate votes to reject the move, now that Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky has said he will vote no.

The House has already voted to derail the action. If the Senate follows later this month, the measure would go to Trump for his promised veto.

Judd believes there is a crisis at the border and has stood behind Trump on his quest to build a wall between the two countries.

He also believes Congress is overstepping in trying to stop its construction.

“When the legislative branch says, ‘We’re not going to let the executive branch do this,’ then they’re usurping the judicial branch’s authority,” Judd said.

Judd, who worked in the agency’s Tucson Sector for a number of years, said, “The courts … have the rights to look at the laws and say he’s using this law right or he’s not using the law right.”

Trump plans to move $3.6 billion from military construction to erect more border barriers.

He’s invoking other powers to transfer an additional $3.1 billion to construction.

Judd and Trump have met in group discussions and the National Border Patrol Council endorsed the Republican’s bid for the presidency in March 2016.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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