Tester Calls For Better Security, More Staffing At Northern Border
Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and John Hoeven, R-N.D., led a bipartisan group of senators last week urging the leaders of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Committee to provide U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with the necessary resources to properly staff and secure the U.S.-Canada border in fiscal year 2023.
Tester and Hoeven outlined the importance of providing CBP with sufficient personnel, technology and tools to secure the northern border and to alleviate the need for temporary duty assignments that draw northern border officers away from their posts. They also pushed for the full re-opening of northern border ports of entry to pre-pandemic hours to allow for accessible and lawful travel and trade.
“U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and U.S. Border Patrol agents have the critical mission of protecting the American people by securing our borders,” the senators wrote. “Continued temporary duty assignments take a significant toll on officers and agents as well as families assigned to northern border duties. We encourage the subcommittee to provide the necessary resources to ensure personnel on the northern border can fulfill their mission without the constant need for temporary duty assignments. Finally, [it is] essential to have ports of entry open to accommodate lawful travel between the United States and Canada. As we turn the corner on the pandemic, ensure that CBP has resume pre-pandemic operating border ports of entry.”
Tester first called for re-open in May 2021, urging to work with Canadian safely open the border. to Department of Homeland Alejandro Mayorkas to move forward with in a “safe, fair, and efficient the Biden Administration reopened the border to Last Month, Tester about the Department’s and Border Protection border, and restoring to pre-pandemic operating Montana shares a 545-and is home to many rely on Canadian to the Canadian is Montana’s top international buying more from the state combined. Reports by estimate that Montana goods to Canada is 2018, the state’s total goods exports.
