Snowe, Conrad warn of dangers in overlooking northern border security

    Senator Olympia J. Snowe joined with Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) and a bipartisan group of Senators on Monday in calling on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, in a letter, not to overlook northern border issues as Customs and Border Protection (CBP) increases operations along the southern border with Mexico.     “Any chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and the border security of the United States is no exception. Our northern border should not be a weak link in our homeland defense,” the Senators write in their letter to Napolitano. “We need to make sure that both of America’s borders are secure, not just the southern one.”
    While the Senators strongly support CBP and its mission to stop illegal immigration along the southern border, they note that it is not the agency’s only responsibility. Many threats, including smuggling of drugs and controlled goods, and even terrorism, come from the north. Despite these dangers, CBP guards the northern border with just a fraction of the staff dedicated to the southern border – in part because Homeland Security has, according to representatives of Sen. Snowe’s office, fallen well short of meeting its legislative mandate to assign at least 20 percent of any new border patrol staff to the northern border.
    At 611 miles, Maine has the third-longest land border on the northern tier of states.
    Last week, a Canadian man was sentenced to spend three years and seven months in a federal prison for smuggling drugs into the U.S.
    Anthony Black, 38, or Perth, New Brunswick, was arrested last September at the Fort Fairfield port of entry while trying to smuggle 2,100 methamphetamine pills concealed in the front bumper of his pickup truck, according to Assistant United States Attorney Joel Casey.
    Black later admitted to investigators that the September arrest was at least his 10th smuggling trip through the Fort Fairfield port of entry and that he had received roughly $10,000 for each instance.
    Another case that came to conclusion last week was the sentencing of Carissa Dumont, 36 of Fort Kent, for attempting to smuggle Oxycodone into the U.S. from Canada in March of 2008. Dumont, who worked at a northern Maine pharmacy at the time, tried to cross the border at the Madawaska port of entry with two pill bottles that contained a total of 420, 20 milligram Oxycodone pills.
    According to Assistant United States Attorney James McCarthy, Dumont had written a prescription herself, in another person’s name, on blank prescription forms that she had stolen from a medical clinic and on which she had forged a doctor’s name. Between November of 2007 until March of 2008, she had filled 14 prescriptions in Canada for 400 Oxycodone each instance and brought them into the U.S. using her vehicle.
    She was sentenced to time served (approximately 65 days), 5 years of supervised release, a fine of $3,000  and a $100 special assessment for the federal crime of attempted importation of Oxycodone.
    The Senators warned Napolitano of the dangers of boosting southern operations by taking critical Border Patrol agents, CBP funding, and in particular limited assets, like Predator B and other aircraft, away from the northern border.
    “While it may be politically expedient, it would be reckless to weaken our northern border security in response to the need for more assets in the south. A strong CBP presence along the northern border is essential to our border security and must be maintained,” the Senators said.
    Those joining Senators Snowe and Conrad in writing the letter to Napolitano include Senators Baucus, Levin, Dorgan, Murray, Crapo, Stabenow, Cantwell, Sanders, Tester, and Risch.