United States Senate WASHINGTON, DC 20510 April 13, 2016 The Honorable R. Gil Kerlikowske Commissioner U.S. Customs and Border Protection Department of Homeland Security 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW Washington, DC 20229 Dear Commissioner Kerlikowske: ‘Thank you for your continued leadership of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). We are writing to ask for your assistance in addressing several issues of importance in the border region of southern New Mexico. ‘As you may know, we hold regular meetings of the Border Security Task Force in southern New Mexico. The Task Force was started by Senator Bingaman in 2003 as a way to bring together CBP, local law enforcement, state and local leaders, and area residents. In addition to these regular meetings, many local residents recently held a meeting in Animas, New Mexico, to discuss their concems about border security, particularly in the rugged Bootheel region of our state. We also have heard from local Border Patrol agents and leadership, who say they need more staff and resources to patrol this vast area effectively. Our meetings with local residents and officials helped to identify several actions that you could take to help make the border more secure and help our constituents feel safer in their homes. We respectfully ask that you consider each of these proposals and take appropriate action to implement them as soon as possible. * Implement policies to encourage agent retention at the Lordsburg Border Patrol Station. Because the station is located in a remote area, agent tumover is very high, and the station frequently receives new agents who come in with little experience, and then leave once they gain experience and an understating of the community and terrain. We ask that you implement financial and nonfinancial incentives that would encourage agents to stay at the Lordsburg Station for a longer period of time. These could include bonuses for making a multiyear commitment to Lordsburg or a cost of living adjustment/incentive pay for border patrol agents and customs and border protection officers assigned to highly-trafficked rural areas. Nonfinancial benefits could include priority consideration for vacancies to agents who have served in hard to fill locations and are interested in transferring to high interest locations.* Provide at least a dozen additional horses and related equipment to increase the reach of agents and assess the need for additional all-terrain vehicles for agents to patrol the Bootheel. This is extremely rugged and mountainous terrain and it is important to evaluate the horse to rider ratio needed in these areas to ensure our agents are provided with the resources they need to effectively patrol the border on horseback, while ensuring horses have ample time to rest, recover, and stay healthy. Additional horses would allow agents to better patrol the area, be less visible to traffickers, and cause less wear and tear on roads used by ranchers in the area. * Work with the National Guard to ensure that its countemarcotic assets and expertise are more focused on the border to act as force multipliers to help Border Patrol cover more of this rugged, rural territory. The New Mexico National Guard has four helicopters it would like to use at the border year-round, including two with infrared cameras. Currently there is only National Guard Counter Drug funding available for about six months of operations. ‘© Ensure agents patrolling the Bootheel region are provided adequate night vision technology. ‘Thank you again for your commitment to our nation’s borders. We look forward to continuing to work with you and CBP to keep our nation safe and secure and to ensure our border communities in New Mexico prosper from their unique bi-national culture and economy. Sincerely, Tom Udall Martin Fleinrich United States Senator United States Senator