Border Patrol agents have been subject to criticism from Democratic politicians and left-leaning talking heads in a highly polarized environment. One example came earlier this year when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) reportedly yelled at agents in a “threatening manner” on a congressional Democrat fact-finding mission down at the border.

However, despite that instance and others, Brandon Judd, the president of the National Border Patrol Council, insists morale is up among agents, and he credits President Donald Trump for that. During an appearance on Huntsville, AL radio’s WVNN, Judd touted Trump’s support for the agents and their mission and his policy regarding the border.

“Morale is looking up greatly but strictly because we have a president that supports the mission that we do,” Judd said. “He supports the agents. He supports border security. Those are the factors that create a good environment for agents. I mean, you would think that with the attacks that we’ve had by people like AOC calling us ‘Nazis,’ comparing us to a group that killed 6 million Jews, you would think that morale would be in the tank. But when you have a president that has our back and supports our mission, morale is going to go up. This is one of the first years in the last couple that we’ve been able to keep more agents that we’ve lost to attrition.”

Judd compared that to the previous administration under President Barack Obama.

“The Democratic administration was never really on top of border security,” he added. “It was under the Obama administration that this crisis exploded. And it was because of that that we got to where we are. If you look at what we’re able to do now, the handcuffs have been taken off of the good guys, and we’re able to put the handcuffs back on the bad guys. We’re able to put the handcuffs on the illegal aliens — the ones that are knowingly violating our laws even though we have the far left that are coming here and inviting them to violate those laws but because we’re able to do that, morale has gone back up.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor