Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
Sen. John Tester, D-Mont., heard a variety of concerns Wednesday about the condition of securing the border between the United States and Canada while holding a field hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in Havre. “Our goal here today is to hear from the folks who stand on that border, to hear from the state, federal and local folks who guard that border,” Tester said at the start of the hearing. The hearing wrapped up Tester’s three-day tour of the border in eastern Montana, including his being joined in Scobey by Paul Schneider, recently confirmed as deputy secretary for the Department of Homeland Security. Tester said seeing the distances and conditions in Montana gave Schneider a new perspective on the challenges to providing border security in the state. “His exact words were, I’m glad I did this. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it,’” Tester said. Tester said the challenges are immense the U.S.-Canadian border is the longest demilitarized border in the world, and security must be balanced by maintaining relations with the Canadians. “We have friends to the north, but that doesn’t mean we should be complacent,” Tester said. He said issues including illegal entry, transportation of drugs and stopping terrorists from entering the United States all must be dealt with. “Drug trafficking across our border is a major problem, whether you’re talking about B.C. Bud or something worse,” Tester said. “There are some known terrorist groups that are organized in Canada. And when a potential terrorist travels from ECanada he will attract a lot less attention than if he tries to fly directly to the U.S.” He added that securing the border still needs to maintain and encourage the economic link to the Canadians to the north. “It’s not an easy balance, that’s for sure,” Tester said. Local relations The increased security on the border following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, has changed the relationship with the federal agencies that secure the border, Toole County Sheriff Donna Matoon told Tester during the hearing. “The changes that have occurred are not without some negative consequences,” she said during her testimony. “The introduction of so many new federal employees into our area has forever changed the small town closeness and camaraderie between the federal agencies and local law enforcement.” Matoon said that when she began in law enforcement 25 years ago, the U.S. Border Patrol had seven agents in the Canada he will attract a lot less attention than if he tries to fly directly to the U.S.” He added that securing the border still needs to maintain and encourage the economic link to the Canadians to the north. “It’s not an easy balance, that’s for sure,” Tester said. Local relations The increased security on the border following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, has changed the relationship with the federal agencies that secure the border, Toole County Sheriff Donna Matoon told Tester during the hearing. “The changes that have occurred are not without some negative consequences,” she said during her testimony. “The introduction of so many new federal employees into our area has forever changed the small town closeness and camaraderie between the federal agencies and local law enforcement.” Matoon said that when she began in law enforcement 25 years ago, the U.S. Border Patrol had seven agents in the county and the Port of Sweetgrass-Coutts was a small-time Canada he will attract a lot less attention than if he tries to fly directly to the U.S.” He added that securing the border still needs to maintain and encourage the economic link to the Canadians to the north. “It’s not an easy balance, that’s for sure,” Tester said. Local relations The increased security on the border following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, has changed the relationship with the federal agencies that secure the border, Toole County Sheriff Donna Matoon told Tester during the hearing. “The changes that have occurred are not without some negative consequences,” she said during her testimony. “The introduction of so many new federal employees into our area has forever changed the small town closeness and camaraderie between the federal agencies and local law enforcement.” Matoon said that when she began in law enforcement 25 years ago, the U.S. Border Patrol had seven agents in the county and the Port of Sweetgrass-Coutts was a small-time operation with 20 employees. Those federal officials were generally long-time residents and were friends with and worked closely with local law enforcement, she said. The cooperation still occurs, Matoon said, including the Border Patrol helping find and rescue a hiker who had medical problems while in a remote area and with the Toole County Sheriff’s Office continuing to help the federal agents. But there is a difference, she added. “The daily meetings and informal information sharing that comes with close personal relationships have been replaced by quarterly intelligence meetings and Senate committees,” Matoon said. “As new federal employees are constantly rotating in and out of our area, it is sometimes difficult to even put a face to the name you are dealing with.” She said even communicating with the Border Patrol agents has become difficult. “Any communication between agents in the field and local law enforcement requires a telephone call relay to sector headquarters in Havre from our dispatch center in Shelby,” Matoon said. “This is slow, inaccurate and unwieldy.” The increase in staffing has also led to competition for employees, she said. “Recently at a combined charity fund raiser with federal officers, I found myself in the unique position of handing out t-shirts with a large advertisement attempting to recruit Border Patrol officers on the back,” she said. “This while my own agency was operating at 75 percent of my patrol capacity.” Staffing on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation Robert DesRosier, director of the Homeland Security Program on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, said evidence shows that people are crossing the border along the 65 miles where it meets the reservation, but his program is understaffed and unfunded. “It is foolish if we think our northern border is secure today. We have much to do,” he told Tester. DesRosier said he is one of two agents for the reservations Homeland Security Program. “Our program is unfunded,” he added. “Salaries come from other unrelated sources within Tribal government.” DesRosier said that with the limited patrols his program is able to do, it regularly finds evidence through tracks that people are crossing the border. Most recently, tracks show that three vehicles approached the border from the north, pulled fence posts and laid the wires down, then drove across the fence into the United States, he said. He said intelligence also indicates that a member of the Blackfeet Tribe is offering guide services for undetected border crossings for an individual fee of $1,500. DesRosier said in order to provide border security, the Blackfeet program needs funding to increase its staff to nine and adequately supply them with technology and equipment. “The Blackfeet Homeland Security forces will become a recognizable, professional, and competent police force that will address the many complex potential attacks against our citizens,” he said. On the state level Dan McGowan, Montana director of Disaster and Emergency Services, told Tester it is difficult for the state to maintain and operate its border security efforts due to decreasing funding, complex and cumbersome requirements for grant applications and lack of coordination. “The cornerstone for success of northern border security efforts relies on true collaboration between and among agencies,” McGowan said. He told Tester that after 9/11 the federal government provided funding to increase security, but Montana has continually experienced funding decreases and also has the responsibility to fulfill the same security requirements. “We respectfully request that funding to rural states, such as Montana, be increased to meet our needs for implementing federally influenced initiatives,” he said. He said grant requirements are also a problem most local law enforcement agencies do not have the staff to meet “cumbersome, complex and time consuming, with no real identified justification,” requirements for applying for the grants. He also said current mutual aid agreements between the states and Canadian provinces are disjointed and held to the responsibilities of the states and provinces. He requested that the United States consider the approval of one consistent mutual aid agreement with Canada, which would allow the states to influence timely, accurate and coordinated assistance with the Canadian provinces. Staffing problems While the federal initiative to increase border security is bringing more federal employees to the region Brenna Neinast, chief of the Border Patrol Havre Sector, which includes 452 miles of border between Montana and Canada, said the staffing in the sector has increased to 120 agents and is expected to increase to 300 within five years the Port of Sweetgrass Chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union president said conditions are leading to a turnover rate that is unsustainable. “For years, NTEU has been saying that CBP needs several thousand additional officers at its point of entry; that insufficient staffing and scheduling abuses are contributing to morale problems, fatigue and safety issues for CBP officers and CBP agriculture specialists ,” Loren Timmerman said. “Not surprisingly, CBP officers are leaving in droves. CBP is losing these employees faster than we can hire replacements.” He said another initiative “One Face at the Border” has exacerbated the problem caused by staff and scheduling shortages. Previously, several agents performed different duties at the border, but the initiative combined customs inspectors and immigrations inspectors into one position, causing agents experienced and trained in one field to have to start doing additional duties. “The One Face at the Border initiative has resulted in the dilution of the customs, immigration and agricultural inspection specializations and weakened the quality of the passenger and cargo inspections,” Timmerman said. Difficulties for small business Two Montana small business owners also testified about the difficulty of doing work with the Department of Homeland Security. Kris Merkel, president of S2 Corp. in Bozeman, and Alexander Philp, president and CEO of GCS Holdings Inc. of Missoula both said they have had extensive dealings with branches of the military and the Department of Defense, but that they are stymied when they deal with Homeland Security. “Attempting to do business with DHS has been, frankly, frustrating ,” said Merkel. “We want to be part of the solution.” Merkel and Philp both said that, without ever hearing a reason, their work to provide services to Homeland Security has met with no success, sometimes after working one or two years in negotiations. S2 Corp. is working to market a communications technology developed at Montana State University in Bozeman over the last 20 years that provides monitoring and secure radio transmissions and also has applications to radar technology. GCS Holdings Inc. has developed technology for geographic information systems, remote sensing, and development of applications to allow users to gain access to detailed geographical information including monitoring and tracking in remote areas. The two said that when dealing with DHS, the chances of a small business having any success seems remote. “For two years I worked with the Department of Defense at the request of CBP only to have that killed,” Philp said. “There’s something very wrong with the process.” Concern for economic development During a listening session following the formal hearing, Tester also heard from people concerned that the desire to provide security could stifle trade with neighbors north of the border. “We really believe that homeland security means economic security,” said Paul Tuss, executive director of Bear Paw Development Corp. Tester said that while that is a main concern, there are other concerns including transportation of contraband and terrorism, which is a real threat, he added. “We’ve got to make sure we do what we can do with a lot of common sense,” Tester said. “We could lock down the damn border, but that won’t do anybody any good.” operation with 20 employees. Those federal officials were generally long-time residents and were friends with and worked closely with local law enforcement, she said. The cooperation still occurs, Matoon said, including the Border Patrol helping find and rescue a hiker who had medical problems while in a remote area and with the Toole County Sheriff’s Office continuing to help the federal agents. But there is a difference, she added. “The daily meetings and informal information sharing that comes with close personal relationships have been replaced by quarterly intelligence meetings and Senate committees,” Matoon said. “As new federal employees are constantly rotating in and out of our area, it is sometimes difficult to even put a face to the name you are dealing with.” She said even communicating with the Border Patrol agents has become difficult. “Any communication between agents in the field and local law enforcement requires a telephone call relay to sector headquarters in Havre from our dispatch center in Shelby,” Matoon said. “This is slow, inaccurate and unwieldy.” The increase in staffing has also led to competition for employees, she said. “Recently at a combined charity fund raiser with federal officers, I found myself in the unique position of handing out t-shirts with a large advertisement attempting to recruit Border Patrol officers on the back,” she said. “This while my own agency was operating at 75 percent of my patrol capacity.” Staffing on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation Robert DesRosier, director of the Homeland Security Program on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, said evidence shows that people are crossing the border along the 65 miles where it meets the reservation, but his program is understaffed and unfunded. “It is foolish if we think our northern border is secure today. We have much to do,” he told Tester. DesRosier said he is one of two agents for the reservations Homeland Security Program. “Our program is unfunded,” he added. “Salaries come from other unrelated sources within Tribal government.” DesRosier said that with the limited patrols his program is able to do, it regularly finds evidence through tracks that people are crossing the border. Most recently, tracks show that three vehicles approached the border from the north, pulled fence posts and laid the wires down, then drove across the fence into the United States, he said. He said intelligence also indicates that a member of the Blackfeet Tribe is offering guide services for undetected border crossings for an individual fee of $1,500. DesRosier said in order to provide border security, the Blackfeet program needs funding to increase its staff to nine and adequately supply them with technology and equipment. “The Blackfeet Homeland Security forces will become a recognizable, professional, and competent police force that will address the many complex potential attacks against our citizens,” he said. On the state level Dan McGowan, Montana director of Disaster and Emergency Services, told Tester it is difficult for the state to maintain and operate its border security efforts due to decreasing funding, complex and cumbersome requirements for grant applications and lack of coordination. “The cornerstone for success of northern border security efforts relies on true collaboration between and among agencies,” McGowan said. He told Tester that after 9/11 the federal government provided funding to increase security, but Montana has continually experienced funding decreases and also has the responsibility to fulfill the same security requirements. “We respectfully request that funding to rural states, such as Montana, be increased to meet our needs for implementing federally influenced initiatives,” he said. He said grant requirements are also a problem most local law enforcement agencies do not have the staff to meet “cumbersome, complex and time consuming, with no real identified justification,” requirements for applying for the grants. He also said current mutual aid agreements between the states and Canadian provinces are disjointed and held to the responsibilities of the states and provinces. He requested that the United States consider the approval of one consistent mutual aid agreement with Canada, which would allow the states to influence timely, accurate and coordinated assistance with the Canadian provinces. Staffing problems While the federal initiative to increase border security is bringing more federal employees to the region Brenna Neinast, chief of the Border Patrol Havre Sector, which includes 452 miles of border between Montana and Canada, said the staffing in the sector has increased to 120 agents and is expected to increase to 300 within five years the Port of Sweetgrass Chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union president said conditions are leading to a turnover rate that is unsustainable. “For years, NTEU has been saying that CBP needs several thousand additional officers at its point of entry; that insufficient staffing and scheduling abuses are contributing to morale problems, fatigue and safety issues for CBP officers and CBP agriculture specialists ,” Loren Timmerman said. “Not surprisingly, CBP officers are leaving in droves. CBP is losing these employees faster than we can hire replacements.” He said another initiative “One Face at the Border” has exacerbated the problem caused by staff and scheduling shortages. Previously, several agents performed different duties at the border, but the initiative combined customs inspectors and immigrations inspectors into one position, causing agents experienced and trained in one field to have to start doing additional duties. “The One Face at the Border initiative has resulted in the dilution of the customs, immigration and agricultural inspection specializations and weakened the quality of the passenger and cargo inspections,” Timmerman said. Difficulties for small business Two Montana small business owners also testified about the difficulty of doing work with the Department of Homeland Security. Kris Merkel, president of S2 Corp. in Bozeman, and Alexander Philp, president and CEO of GCS Holdings Inc. of Missoula both said they have had extensive dealings with branches of the military and the Department of Defense, but that they are stymied when they deal with Homeland Security. “Attempting to do business with DHS has been, frankly, frustrating ,” said Merkel. “We want to be part of the solution.” Merkel and Philp both said that, without ever hearing a reason, their work to provide services to Homeland Security has met with no success, sometimes after working one or two years in negotiations. S2 Corp. is working to market a communications technology developed at Montana State University in Bozeman over the last 20 years that provides monitoring and secure radio transmissions and also has applications to radar technology. GCS Holdings Inc. has developed technology for geographic information systems, remote sensing, and development of applications to allow users to gain access to detailed geographical information including monitoring and tracking in remote areas. The two said that when dealing with DHS, the chances of a small business having any success seems remote. “For two years I worked with the Department of Defense at the request of CBP only to have that killed,” Philp said. “There’s something very wrong with the process.” Concern for economic development During a listening session following the formal hearing, Tester also heard from people concerned that the desire to provide security could stifle trade with neighbors north of the border. “We really believe that homeland security means economic security,” said Paul Tuss, executive director of Bear Paw Development Corp. Tester said that while that is a main concern, there are other concerns including transportation of contraband and terrorism, which is a real threat, he added. “We’ve got to make sure we do what we can do with a lot of common sense,” Tester said. “We could lock down the damn border, but that won’t do anybody any good.”county and the Port of Sweetgrass-Coutts was a small-time operation with 20 employees. Those federal officials were generally long-time residents and were friends with and worked closely with local law enforcement, she said. The cooperation still occurs, Matoon said, including the Border Patrol helping find and rescue a hiker who had medical problems while in a remote area and with the Toole County Sheriff’s Office continuing to help the federal agents. But there is a difference, she added. “The daily meetings and informal information sharing that comes with close personal relationships have been replaced by quarterly intelligence meetings and Senate committees,” Matoon said. “As new federal employees are constantly rotating in and out of our area, it is sometimes difficult to even put a face to the name you are dealing with.” She said even communicating with the Border Patrol agents has become difficult. “Any communication between agents in the field and local law enforcement requires a telephone call relay to sector headquarters in Havre from our dispatch center in Shelby,” Matoon said. “This is slow, inaccurate and unwieldy.” The increase in staffing has also led to competition for employees, she said. “Recently at a combined charity fund raiser with federal officers, I found myself in the unique position of handing out t-shirts with a large advertisement attempting to recruit Border Patrol officers on the back,” she said. “This while my own agency was operating at 75 percent of my patrol capacity.” Staffing on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation Robert DesRosier, director of the Homeland Security Program on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, said evidence shows that people are crossing the border along the 65 miles where it meets the reservation, but his program is understaffed and unfunded. “It is foolish if we think our northern border is secure today. We have much to do,” he told Tester. DesRosier said he is one of two agents for the reservations Homeland Security Program. “Our program is unfunded,” he added. “Salaries come from other unrelated sources within Tribal government.” DesRosier said that with the limited patrols his program is able to do, it regularly finds evidence through tracks that people are crossing the border. Most recently, tracks show that three vehicles approached the border from the north, pulled fence posts and laid the wires down, then drove across the fence into the United States, he said. He said intelligence also indicates that a member of the Blackfeet Tribe is offering guide services for undetected border crossings for an individual fee of $1,500. DesRosier said in order to provide border security, the Blackfeet program needs funding to increase its staff to nine and adequately supply them with technology and equipment. “The Blackfeet Homeland Security forces will become a recognizable, professional, and competent police force that will address the many complex potential attacks against our citizens,” he said. On the state level Dan McGowan, Montana director of Disaster and Emergency Services, told Tester it is difficult for the state to maintain and operate its border security efforts due to decreasing funding, complex and cumbersome requirements for grant applications and lack of coordination. “The cornerstone for success of northern border security efforts relies on true collaboration between and among agencies,” McGowan said. He told Tester that after 9/11 the federal government provided funding to increase security, but Montana has continually experienced funding decreases and also has the responsibility to fulfill the same security requirements. “We respectfully request that funding to rural states, such as Montana, be increased to meet our needs for implementing federally influenced initiatives,” he said. He said grant requirements are also a problem most local law enforcement agencies do not have the staff to meet “cumbersome, complex and time consuming, with no real identified justification,” requirements for applying for the grants. He also said current mutual aid agreements between the states and Canadian provinces are disjointed and held to the responsibilities of the states and provinces. He requested that the United States consider the approval of one consistent mutual aid agreement with Canada, which would allow the states to influence timely, accurate and coordinated assistance with the Canadian provinces. Staffing problems While the federal initiative to increase border security is bringing more federal employees to the region Brenna Neinast, chief of the Border Patrol Havre Sector, which includes 452 miles of border between Montana and Canada, said the staffing in the sector has increased to 120 agents and is expected to increase to 300 within five years the Port of Sweetgrass Chapter of the National Treasury Employees Union president said conditions are leading to a turnover rate that is unsustainable. “For years, NTEU has been saying that CBP needs several thousand additional officers at its point of entry; that insufficient staffing and scheduling abuses are contributing to morale problems, fatigue and safety issues for CBP officers and CBP agriculture specialists ,” Loren Timmerman said. “Not surprisingly, CBP officers are leaving in droves. CBP is losing these employees faster than we can hire replacements.” He said another initiative “One Face at the Border” has exacerbated the problem caused by staff and scheduling shortages. Previously, several agents performed different duties at the border, but the initiative combined customs inspectors and immigrations inspectors into one position, causing agents experienced and trained in one field to have to start doing additional duties. “The One Face at the Border initiative has resulted in the dilution of the customs, immigration and agricultural inspection specializations and weakened the quality of the passenger and cargo inspections,” Timmerman said. Difficulties for small business Two Montana small business owners also testified about the difficulty of doing work with the Department of Homeland Security. Kris Merkel, president of S2 Corp. in Bozeman, and Alexander Philp, president and CEO of GCS Holdings Inc. of Missoula both said they have had extensive dealings with branches of the military and the Department of Defense, but that they are stymied when they deal with Homeland Security. “Attempting to do business with DHS has been, frankly, frustrating ,” said Merkel. “We want to be part of the solution.” Merkel and Philp both said that, without ever hearing a reason, their work to provide services to Homeland Security has met with no success, sometimes after working one or two years in negotiations. S2 Corp. is working to market a communications technology developed at Montana State University in Bozeman over the last 20 years that provides monitoring and secure radio transmissions and also has applications to radar technology. GCS Holdings Inc. has developed technology for geographic information systems, remote sensing, and development of applications to allow users to gain access to detailed geographical information including monitoring and tracking in remote areas. The two said that when dealing with DHS, the chances of a small business having any success seems remote. “For two years I worked with the Department of Defense at the request of CBP only to have that killed,” Philp said. “There’s something very wrong with the process.” Concern for economic development During a listening session following the formal hearing, Tester also heard from people concerned that the desire to provide security could stifle trade with neighbors north of the border. “We really believe that homeland security means economic security,” said Paul Tuss, executive director of Bear Paw Development Corp. Tester said that while that is a main concern, there are other concerns including transportation of contraband and terrorism, which is a real threat, he added. “We’ve got to make sure we do what we can do with a lot of common sense,” Tester said. “We could lock down the damn border, but that won’t do anybody any good.”ngland to
