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CBP Agents From Northern Ports Provide Support At US Mexican Border

U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Border Patrol Station in AZ
Flickr/Daniel J. Calderon, US Army Corps of Engineers
U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Border Patrol Station in AZ

US border patrol reports more people are being arrested along the southwest border than ever before, and that’s affecting all of the nation’s 328 ports around the country, including Montana.

Daniel Escobedo, Area Port Director for Customs and Border Protection, Sweetgrass, MT, said Montana’s border with Canada may be some 1,500 from that crisis but it is being impacted

He tells Yellowstone Public Radio News that several agents from northern ports have been sent to the southwest border but could not provide a specific number from Montana or other northern states.

“Currently CBP has temporarily reassigned up to 731 CBP officers from ports around the nation to border patrol sectors where apprehensions of family units and unaccompanied children from Central American has overwhelmed border patrol capabilities and facilities,” said Escobedo. "That includes CBP offers from northern border ports, seaports and airports in order to lesson that impact from any one port of entry.”

Escobedo said these stints along with southwest border are brief.

“I think we’re sending people for small periods of time and them sending them back," Escobedo said. “That’s where we are currently working, and it’s working for us right now. As I said I’m not sure how long this will last. It is definitely not getting any lesser of a crisis at this stage so we will continue to support as long as we need to.”

The security and humanitarian crisis along the southwest US border with Mexico is setting records.

Border Patrol Union President Brandon Judd shared a startling statistic on NPR’s Morning Edition on Friday, May 31.

“We are currently arresting around 6,000 people per day along the southwest border. That’s never happened before,” said Judd.

Montana’s border with Saskatchewan has also been in the news. CBP has cut hours of operations at the ports of Opheim, Scobey and Morgan from 13 to 10, and is evaluating whether the port at Raymond should remain a 24-hour port.

Copyright 2019 Yellowstone Public Radio

Kay Erickson has been working in broadcasting in Billings for more than 20 years. She spent well over a decade as news assignment editor at KTVQ-TV before joining the staff at YPR. She is a graduate of Northern Illinois University, with a degree in broadcast journalism. Shortly after graduation she worked in Great Falls where she was one of the first female sports anchor and reporter in Montana.
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