Murphy, Schiff Introduce Bill To Keep Border Patrol Agents At Our Borders And Out Of Our Cities

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senators Chris Murphy (D-Conn) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) today introduced the Keeping Our Agents On The Line Act, a bill to improve border security by ensuring that Border Patrol Agents are not diverted from their work at U.S. borders and reassigned to operations deep in the American interior.

Over the last year, Border Patrol Agents have repeatedly been deployed for complex immigration enforcement operations in American cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans, Minneapolis and Charlotte. Several of these missions were hundreds of miles away from any land border, and far outside the "reasonable distance" border patrol enforcement zone enshrined in law. However, Border Patrol Agents do not have the training to conduct complex civil immigration investigations in the U.S. interior, which ordinarily are handled by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Predictably, untrained border patrol agents have been severely disruptive in the communities they've been deployed to, harassing US citizens in their homes and workplaces, violently arresting local activists, and refusing to communicate with local law enforcement. Despite pleas from state governors, mayors, and business leaders to take Border Patrol Agents out of their cities, the Trump Administration has vowed to continue these missions and offered little clarity about their scope or duration.

"Border Patrol has no business conducting regular operations hundreds of miles away from the border," said Murphy. "Trump's obsession with ripping families apart and militarizing our cities has resulted in untrained agents wreaking havoc in American communities and a border that's less secure. Our bill frees border patrol agents to do the important jobs they were actually trained to do: working at or near the border line to keep our country safe."

"The administration has continued to engage in indiscriminate and large-scale immigration raids - fomenting fear in our communities. In California, the administration has targeted citizens, noncitizens, and children while conducting raids far from any external border. These actions have torn apart families and adversely impacted the workforce of important industries, including agriculture. I am proud to join Senator Murphy in limiting the Border Patrol agents' jurisdiction within a reasonable boundary from our external land and sea borders, and to missions for which they are properly trained," said Schiff.

The Keeping Our Agents On The Line Act would:

1. Clarify the zone of Border Patrol operation does not exceed 25 land miles (consistent with the existing statute);
2. Recognize the critical work of the Border Patrol in emergencies such as the Uvalde school shooting, by providing exceptions to the Border Patrol zone where lives are in immediate or imminent danger;
3. Prohibit delegations of authority to the Border Patrol to ensure that agents can remain focused on their primary mission of ensuring a secure border; and
4. Provide transparency in the form of public reports on data about various training and interactions with United States citizens and others.

For full text of the bill click here.