Turf war hurts border bill

A new government investigation has uncovered a deadly bureaucratic turf war between Border Patrol and federal land managers that has been delaying and even denying critical access to the border along federal lands. In one case, Border Patrol had to pay millions of dollars for access to federal lands managed by the National Park Service.

That's right. Border Patrol had to expend taxpayer dollars to compensate a federal agency in order to get access to federal land. That's not only bad fiscal policy - it's downright dangerous for our national security.

Nearly half of Montana's border with Canada is on federal land. Another government investigation revealed that only 1 percent of the northern border is secure, and that a contributing factor is the inability of border agents to get permission to patrol on federal lands.

As an avid sportsman and a retired Border Patrol agent, who just returned from an elk hunt, I treasure Montana's public lands. Agencies such as BLM, Forest Service and National Park Service, serve a valuable purpose as stewards of public lands. They also help to enforce useful federal laws like the Endangered Species Act and the Wilderness Act. And I don't know a single Border Patrol agent who would do anything to jeopardize our public lands.

I've also seen the results of an unprotected border firsthand. I've witnessed the sort of human trafficking and the illegal drug trafficking that rips families apart and destroys entire communities. The national security threat of terrorism is very real. Even forests and wildlife suffer from an unprotected border, as drug smugglers and illegal border crossers aren't known to respect the environment.

Montanans value our environment and wildlife. But do we prioritize them over human life and national security? Of course not. Yet current law does just that. By making border security beg federal land managers for access that can be delayed or denied, our federal government is prioritizing trees and turf wars over the safety of the American people.

Congressman Denny Rehberg has sponsored a common-sense bill that corrects this problem. House Resolution 1505, the National Security and Federal Lands Protection Act, is really quite simple. It gives the Border Patrol the access it needs to do its job on federal lands - the same access, by the way, that it already has on state and private lands.

This is a good bill, which is why it's been endorsed by the National Border Patrol Council, which represents 17,000 Border Patrol agents, the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers and Borderland Ranchers. It's a bill that Montanans support.

Ted Denning is a retired deputy chief from the Havre sector of the U.S. Border Patrol.