Border Patrol Wives Urge Pelosi to Visit Texas, See Firsthand Need for Donald Trump's Wall

A pair of women married to U.S. Border Patrol agents sent a snarky letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, inviting her to visit Texas's border with Mexico and see how her opposition to a barrier was misguided.

Jill Demanski and Renea Perez, who are both wives of border patrol agents, appeared on Fox & Friends Monday morning to ask members of Congress who oppose President Donald Trump's border wall proposal to visit the Rio Grande Valley. The women said Pelosi and other Democrats who refused to include Trump's $5.7 billion demand for his wall were endangering the lives of their loved ones.

Ironically, they also complained about the financial burden of the Trump-led government shutdown, which has temporarily ended until February 15, while touting Trump as the first president to "finally have [our] backs."

Both border patrol wives repeatedly thanked Trump but also said it was agents and experts, not the president, who were really demanding the southern border barrier.

The Border Patrol wives' letter to Pelosi read: "We the wives of the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol would like to cordially invite you to come visit McAllen, Texas as President Trump did. We would like to show you around! You don't need to bring any security detail. Our husbands/significant others are actually very good at their jobs, thank goodness! We'd also appreciate if you'd stop pretending you care about federal workers. If you did, you would care for their safety, not just their paychecks. We can hold out awhile longer, if it means our husbands and communities are safer."

A 17-person bipartisan committee of legislators have until February 15 to reach a deal on Trump's proposed border wall. Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney warned those opposed to the plan that Trump would get his wall "with or without Congress" and was willing to shut the government down a second time.

Demanski, whose husband met the president during his recent visit to the southern U.S. border, explained to the Fox hosts why she sent Pelosi a letter. "I just felt it was really important that our leaders come here and see what's happening firsthand. It's important for them to meet with the people that are here on a daily basis, that are witnessing it and the effect that it has on our country. We want them to come here and make an informed decision."

Demanski continued, "It is not President Trump that is necessarily asking for the wall. Border Patrol and our agents, the experts here, have been asking for it for years.

"We finally have a president that has come here and seen firsthand, the need for it, and has had our back. I don't know of many presidents that really have gone through the turmoil that he's gone through to try and help us try to get this.

"It's Border Patrol and the agents that are asking for it, not Trump," Demanski reiterated.

Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade claimed Pelosi "totally changed her stance since President Obama," saying Pelosi no longer cared about border patrol agents or their safety. Perez said that agents like her husband frequently spent long hours in remote areas trying to keep what could be hundreds of people from illegally crossing the border.

"[The Border Patrol agents] definitely need a wall or a barrier in the high-traffic areas that will allow them to do their job more efficiently and give them more time to have other people, if they are by themselves, have another agent go and meet them," said Kilmeade. "We just want [members of Congress] to come down there on the line and actually see where the whole argument is about—come and visit it, let the agents show why they need the wall."

Demanski agreed, calling on Pelosi to "go out with the agents" and see how one or two members of the Department of Homeland Security often handle hundreds of immigrants, especially to slow down migrant caravans.

While the Border Patrol wives were as entrenched in their position as the president, they also complained about the Trump-led government shutdown and the effect it had on their family's financial safety. Perez said her husband was not paid for four weeks, and they're yet to receive back pay. "It felt like nobody cared," she said. "Bills don't stop."

Kilmeade closed out the segment by claiming that opposition to Trump on a personal level was "the reason you don't have" the border wall.

A Facebook group representing "Wives of the Border Patrol" featured several posts about MS-13 gang members in Boston and multiple calls for increased overall border security funding.