Former President Donald Trump announced a new plan Sunday to increase the number of U.S. Border Patrol agents and retain existing talent, as he makes immigration and the border a key part of his final message against Vice President Kamala Harris.

At a campaign rally in battleground Arizona — where he devoted much of his speech to stoking fears about undocumented immigrants — the former president pledged to hire 10,000 new agents Americans, to offer a 10% salary increase, and to offer $10,000 in retention and signing. prime.

“This will ensure we can hire and retain the Border Patrol agents we need.” And we can also attract a lot of new, really great ones,” he told supporters gathered at the Findlay Toyota Center in Prescott Valley. He suggested Border Patrol agents have “good genetics” after recently saying migrants who commit murder have “bad genes,” in another example of him using dehumanizing rhetoric toward people living illegally in the country.

The former president said he would call on Congress to “immediately” approve the 10% raise for all officers.

Trump, however, defeated a bipartisan border bill in Congress earlier this year that would have paved the way for more Border Patrol agents and had the support of the National Border Patrol Council. The Harris campaign and Democrats have frequently cited Trump’s efforts to derail the deal while launching an offensive against the former president over border security. This same union, which represents US Border Patrol agents, officially endorsed Trump on Sunday after giving him its support.

The Harris campaign criticized Trump on Sunday for what it called “his long record of failed leadership and broken promises.”

“Donald Trump told us that Mexico would pay for the failure of its border wall. It was a lie. Then he made taxpayers pay for the failure of his border wall. “Trump doesn’t care about solving any issues, he only wants to run on one,” Harris campaign spokesman Matt Corridoni said in a statement. “That’s why he rejected the bipartisan border bill that would have secured the border, even if it had been approved by the Border Patrol.”

In late September, Harris made her first visit to the U.S. border as a presidential candidate, and last week at the Univision town hall she again accused Trump of defeating the bipartisan immigration bill. border security, saying he wanted to “tackle a problem.”

As CNN reported, Trump is acting as if closing the border and deporting those who cross it illegally are the country’s most urgent priorities. But recent polls have repeatedly said the economy is the issue most voters care about. In a recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS, more than 4 in 10 likely voters said the economy was the most important issue when choosing a candidate to lead the country. Only 12% said immigration was the priority for them.

CNN’s Ebony Davis and Steve Contorno contributed to this report.

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