Local border personnel head off to gulf states

By Meg Olson

While a few local Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers are heading to the Gulf coast to help that area recover from hurricane Katrina, it’s not leaving any holes along the border.

“The impact on us is minimal,” said Border Patrol Blaine sector deputy chief patrol agent Joe Giuliano. “We haven’t really lost any line agents.”

Giuliano said that local borders had been identified by Border Patrol national headquarters as a “focus sector,” where because of surrounding geography and demographics they retain maximum staffing levels at all times. “There are factors that make us need to be acutely watchful in the area,” he said. The two members of the border patrol who have been sent to Louisiana were members of a national tactical response team, he added.

CBP public affairs officer Mike Milne said he did not have specific information as to how many of the 600 CBP officers sent to the Gulf coast for recovery and law enforcement efforts had come from local borders. “There are people coming from all over,” he said. “Certainly we’re sending people from this area.”