City Council race puts Irving Firefighters' Association on the defense against claims of human trafficking support

CBS News

2 days ago

The Irving Professional Firefighters Association said they are investigating multiple false statements made by two men that city firefighters support human trafficking.
Brian Becker, the president of the Irving Professional Firefighters Association, said the municipal election in Irving has become unrecognizable. The flow of money, he said, and the nastiness.
"It makes me mad and upset, disappointed that people would even say something like this," Becker said.
According to Becker, they started getting reports from people who said they kept hearing the association's members were supporting human trafficking.
"So we've heard at the voting centers and we've received some messages that there's individuals going to doors saying that we support human trafficking, which is unequivocally false," he said.
The reports started to multiply to the point where Becker said he had to do something. He had been in Austin for the legislative session, so the association sent out a news release addressing the allegations.
He said they are searching for two men who were reportedly handing out campaign literature for Sergio Porres. Porres is running against David Pfaff, whom the association endorsed.
"I think that's outrageous," Porres said.
Porres pointed out that the group is politically aligned, and he supports public safety even without an endorsement.
"Whether you endorse me or not, these are the same things that I'm going to advocate for and do if we have to, if we end up working together, if I win because those are not things that I'm doing just to curry favor with them," Porres said.
The Firefighters Association said it is looking for doorbell video. Becker said they are not connecting the allegations to anyone's campaign.
In the meantime, Porres' campaign pointed to false statements made online, connected to their campaign, and text messages.
It's false statements, Becker said, that could compromise their job.
"Everything we do is predicated on the trust we have from the citizens," he said. "I don't think there's any other profession where somebody can call us because their kid is choking or not breathing, whatever may be, or their loved one, and opens a door for five or six strangers and hands their loved one off to them."