Border protection authority could be expanded

Commissioners discussed a bill now in the U.S. Senate that would expand the powers of the Department of Homeland Security by waiving compliance with 36 environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act, and expand the agency’s jurisdiction to within a 100-mile buffer along borders and coastlines.

In addition, the board voiced concern about the completion of a draft programmatic environmental impact statement by U.S. Customs and Border Protection that analyzes the potential environmental and socioeconomic effects associated with its ongoing and potential future activities along the northern border between the United States and Canada.

On both issues, the board heard from Voyageurs National Park Superintendent Mike Ward, and Koochiching County Historical Society Director Ed Oerichbauer and society board member Catherine Crawford.

Board Chairman Wade Pavleck said he was deeply disappointed that Congressman Chip Cravaack has supported the Senate proposal known as the National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act.

In July, Cravaack commended U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, for introducing the bill.

“This common sense legislation would allow federal border patrol agents to have operational control, and access to the border,” said Cravaack in July. “Currently these agents are hamstrung from being able to actively police these areas because of outdated policies that were intended to protect the environment, but have actually hurt the land in some areas of the country and further exposed our porous borders.”

Cravaack called Voyageurs National Park a national treasure and said he’s “completely committed to keeping it as beautiful as it is today, but I am also committed to keeping it safe to all those who are lucky enough to visit. We simply have to allow these agents to do their jobs and eliminate all this bureaucratic red tape which is all too present in Washington, D.C.”   

Ward told commissioners that National Park Service administration testified against the Senate bill in a committee hearing in July.

The Senate proposal would give the secretary of Homeland Security authority over federal lands within 100 miles of the U.S. border for activities that assist in securing the border, including access to maintain and construct roads, fences and to use vehicles to patrol and set up monitoring equipment, explained Ward.

The measure would waive the normal environmental review processes and not allow public comment on proposals by state, federal or local agencies or the public. He called that frustrating.

“Nothing would stop them from building a listening station at Soldiers Point (in VNP),” said Pavleck.

“Or in this room,” added Oerichbauer.

Ward said the missions of both Homeland Security and the National Park Service can and are being carried out through collaboration now.

Proponents of the measure say that border protection has been crippled by federal land managers who use environmental laws to keep agents out of federal lands. That idea, said Ward, is disturbing.

“This does not fit us,” he said.

He suggested the board invite CBP representatives to explain their view of the collaboration now happening between agencies in the area.

Pavleck described the proposal as giving Homeland Security “a blank check” to do what it wants on federal lands, and he said he’s concerned that the idea may eventually impact private lands.

“This is a huge abuse of power and authority,” he said, noting that counties and other governments must follow environmental rules and processes in proposed projects.

“This smacks of Big Brother,” said Commissioner Brian McBride. “I’m opposed.”

Meanwhile, the PEIS, Ward said, has been in the works for 1 1/2 years. The document is extremely vague and “lacks any description of what may be built or considered in the future,” he said.

Ward said he wondered why CBP did not make known to local governments and the public that it was preparing a draft PEIS that analyzes the future use of the 4,000 miles of northern border and 100 miles deep into the U.S.

The PEIS is to be “programmatic,” however it deals with fences and roads, added Ward.

Oerichbauer said the PEIS shows “no understanding of the northern border and the millions of acres impacted, of which 90 percent has not been surveyed for cultural resources.”

He noted that Grand Mound burial site west of International Falls along the Rainy River is not even mentioned in the huge document.

“I am very concerned about what this could do to the cultural resources of Koochiching County, Minnesota and the nation,” he said.

Pavleck said he lost trust in the federal government while serving in Cambodia during the Vietnam War when the U.S. Stars and Stripes newspaper published a headline quoting then Pres. Richard Nixon proclaiming that no U.S. troops were in Cambodia.

“There have been so many abuses to citizens’ rights in the name of homeland security,” Pavleck said. He urged the board to send letters to elected state officials who are supposed to “protect us from over zealous bureaucracies like the federal government.”

Commissioners are expected to share the board’s concerns about the initiatives with various committees in the state.

To provide comments:

Download the Draft PEIS from the project website at http://www.NorthernBorderPEIS.com. Comments on the draft PEIS must be received by Oct. 31. Include your name and address and the state or region to which the comment applies, as appropriate. To avoid duplication, use only one of the following methods for providing comments:

Project website: http://www.NorthernBorderPEIS.com/public-involvement/comments.html;

E-mail: Comments@NorthernBorderPEIS.com;

Mail:

CBP Northern Border PEIS, P.O. Box 3625, McLean, Virginia 22102; Phone voicemail box: (866) 760-1421 (comments recorded in the voicemail box will be transcribed).