Influx of border agents boosts Hi-Line economy

Communities all across Montana’s Hi-Line are feeling a welcome economic boost from an influx of Border Patrol agents who have moved in to guard the border with Canada.

Since December, more than 60 Border Patrol agents have been assigned to new positions in northern Montana, joining the 20 who were transferred here shortly after the East Coast terrorist attacks of 9/11. Officials won’t release exact numbers.

Associated Press

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"It’s not just one impact," said Paul Tuss, executive director of Bear Paw Development Corp., a nonprofit regional economic development firm.

"It has a significant ripple effect. You have people moving into these areas, and those people need housing, their children need to be schooled, they need to buy groceries. When you add that ripple effect up, the impact on northern Montana has got to be significant."

Havre is the headquarters for a Border Patrol sector that includes all of Montana and part of southern Idaho. In the 464-mile stretch from the Continental Divide to the North Dakota line, it has offices in Havre, Shelby, Scobey, Plentywood, Malta, Sweet Grass and St. Mary.

"This year, we filled positions from Scobey all along the Hi-Line – Plentywood, Malta, Sweet Grass – very nearly every town where there’s an established Border Patrol station," Border Patrol spokesman Mark Kemp said.

The impacts will be permanent because the assignments are permanent, all the agents are veterans with the agency, and they are in Montana because they asked to be here, Kemp said.

All Border Patrol agents have pay scales of G-11 or higher, Kemp said. A federal Web site said a G-11 employee with three years’ experience earns about $46,500 a year.

Enrollment in Havre public schools rose this year for the first time since Kirk Miller became superintendent eight years ago, and he attributes some of the increase to the Border Patrol. More students means more state funding.

Shelby Elementary School Principal Joe Rapkoch returned from Christmas break to find 10 new students in his school, which serves 303 students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.

Shelby has averaged less than one new house a year since 1992, but officials will meet there this month to plan for what they expect to be a veritable housing boom. Havre, Malta and the Scobey-Plentywood area also expect new homebuilding.

Also in the works are new Border Patrol stations in Shelby, Havre, Malta and between Scobey and Plentywood in Eastern Montana.

Hi-Line sheriff’s departments also benefit from the new federal officers, who come equipped with state-of-the-art crime-fighting technology.

"From 10 years ago, where you could cross the border almost at will because almost nobody was around, now when you cross the border somehow or another you’re going to be detected," Glacier County Undersheriff Wayne Dusterhoff said.

"We probably have increased the detection rate by well over 70 percent," he added. "We’ve got better surveillance, we’ve got more agents out, and we’ve got better coordination of state and federal and local agencies."

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