Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Mark Dayton today announced that the annual spending bill for border security calls for an increase in northern border agents. The bill, which is expected to receive final approval by the House and Senate this week, contains $5.56 billion for Customs and Border Patrol, which is $233 million above the original Senate bill. Included is funding for 1,500 additional border agents and language requiring that at least 10 percent of the increased staffing be designated for the northern border.

“I am very pleased that the legislation funding Homeland Security for 2007 includes most of my amendment to increase federal border protection for Minnesota and other northern states,” said Dayton. “The bill provides almost $38 million next year for 148 additional Border Patrol Agents along our northern border, a 15 percent increase in the present number. Those additional federal agents should significantly increase the protection of Minnesotans living near the Canadian border and help stop illegal trafficking of people, narcotics, and other criminal elements into our entire state.”

Earlier this year, the Senate passed a Dayton measure that provided $44 million to hire an additional 236 agents for the northern border. The joint House-Senate conference committee replaced his original amendment with the 10 percent requirement. The U.S.-Canada border, which stretches across 18 states, currently has 954 agents – with only 250 guarding the border at any one time. By contrast, the U.S.-Mexico border has approximately 10,000 agents. Despite a federal mandate requiring a 20 percent increase in northern border patrol agents every year until 2010, the number of agents there has actually declined from 996 to 954 over the past two years.

In August, Dayton met with local law enforcement and federal officials along Minnesota’s northern border to discuss the security challenges they face. They said the border remains porous in many areas, due to an insufficient number of patrol agents and equipment. This is despite the fact that Canadian intelligence agencies have identified some 50 terrorist cells in their country and illegal drug trafficking remains rampant.

In 2006, Minnesota received no federal money for northern border security.

To access radio actuality: http://demradio.senate.gov/actualities/dayton/dayton092906.mp3

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