Friday 5 August 2022 06:13 PM Arizona Senators Sinema and Kelly want to give 2,500 agents a 14% pay raise trends now
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Democratic Arizona Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly have joined a bipartisan legislative effort that would set up a reserve Border Patrol and give agents a 14 per cent raise.
The lawmakers are pushing the effort along with Republican Sens. Rob Portman and James Lankford to boost the agency, which has come under pressure by the surge of border crossings.
'Border Patrol must maintain a strong workforce to secure the border, protect our communities, and ensure the fair and humane treatment of migrants. Border Patrol does not have the staffing or resources to meet that goal – our bipartisan legislation addresses these issues to adequately support Border Patrol as they protect Arizona communities,' Sinema said in a statement Thursday.
According to sponsors, the legislation would increase the total number of U.S. Border Patrol agents to 20,500, with a newly created 2,500 reserve force.
Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly joined a bipartisan effort to boost pay of US Border Patrol agents
The pay boost, which is well above inflation, would make salaries 'competitive' with other Department of Homeland Security agencies, while standardizing training.
The agency has sometimes come
