Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), the co-chairman of the House Border Security caucus, sent a letter to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas regarding reports of “unattended” ports of entry at the northern border with Canada.
Biggs questioned Mayorkas and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Senior Official performing the duties of CBP Commissioner Troy Miller on reports that CPB officials are being instructed to extend the operating hours of northern ports of entry to up to 24 hours, even without sufficient agents to guard them.
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“We are concerned with recent reports from concerned citizens and members of the public that ports of entry (POEs) along the United States’ border with Canada are being left open and unattended for extended periods of time,” Biggs said in the letter on Tuesday, which was co-signed by Reps. Matt Rosendale (R-MT), and Tom Tiffany (R-WI).
“This information accompanies publicly available reporting on increases in illegal border crossings along the Northern border, including by foreign nationals from countries in Asia and the Middle East,” the letter added.
The letter comes on the same day CBP published the latest report on illegal border crossings. According to the report, 170,284 people were arrested by Border Patrol agents for entering illegally in May, but just 140 were arrested on the Canadian border. There have been over 98,000 migrant encounters at the northern border in fiscal 2023.
Even though the numbers are lower than the encounters seen at the southern border with Mexico, the 2023 encounters are an increase from the 27,000 encountered on the northern border in fiscal 2020.
“Americans deserve to know why their borders are not being secured,” Biggs said in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner.
“Now that the Biden administration has dismantled our southern border security,” he continued. “They have moved to dismantle our northern border security. It’s unconscionable to hear that the Biden administration would authorize inadequately supervised or even completely unmanned ports of entries. The American people deserve to understand the extent of this problem.”
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Biggs also requested information on the hours of operation for the ports, information about staffing levels for the ports, and documents and materials issued on opening hours of ports of entry at the northern border.
The congressmen gave Mayorkas until July 10 to respond to the inquiry.
