PORT ANGELES — More Border Patrol agents may be stationed here by the end of the year as the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection increases by more than half the number of agents patrolling the country’s northern border.
The shift of 375 veteran agents from the Southwest border to the northern border is “unprecedented” and enhances homeland security, said Mike Milne, a bureau spokesman in Seattle.
The move was announced Wednesday by the bureau’s commissioner, Robert Bonner, to help keep out terrorist weapons, drugs and illegal immigrants.
“We were clearly understaffed on the northern border,” Bonner said. “This is an important step in increasing security along our northern border and is necessary given the continuing threat of terrorism.”
The 375 agents will be shifted from southern posts and evenly distributed throughout the eight Border Patrol sectors along the Canadian border, from Port Angeles to points of entry in Vermont. The shifts would bring to 1,000 the number of permanently assigned border patrol agents by the end of the year.
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