ERIE: You may have noticed U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicles on area roads, or spotted their vessels on the water, or their helicopter in the air. But what exactly do they do here in Erie? They invited the media in for a day long tour to show.
They explained how three different arms of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, all under the umbrella of Homeland Security are working everyday to keep our U.S./ Canadian border safe.
The U.S. Border Patrol station in Erie has a massive headquarters on Traut Drive in Fairview, with a fleet of trucks, bicycles and even its own emergency power generator, to make sure its operation never stops. They patrol on land along the Lake Erie shoreline, from the Pennsylvania/Ohio border to Silver Creek, New York.
Border Patrol teams up with the Office of Air and Marine which uses vessels and aircraft to reach out to the international border in the middle of Lake Erie between the U.S. and Canada. They gave us an impressive display of speed and skill. Their job along with the Field Office based at Erie International Airport is to make sure terrorists, their weapons and other illegal material or individuals don’t enter the United States. And they’re pretty proud of their work. Agent Robert Signorino, Public Affairs Officer at the Erie station, “Some of Erie’s best years, is 566 apprehensions in one year and since the Erie station has opened in 2004, we have apprehended individuals from over 120 different countries in this area.”
Air Interdiction Agent, Robert Hartshorn, piloted a helicopter based in Niagara Falls into Erie for media day. He said, “We work all sorts of cases, firearms cases, child exploitation cases, lots and lots of drug cases, and to a lesser degree the traditional border mission, because it’s just a little more difficult to cross Lake Erie in a raft than it is the Rio Grande,”
Jon Rose, Marine Interdiction Agent took us on a boat ride, with two U.S. Customs and Border Protection vessels. He said having these resources available in Erie is a tremendous asset to federal, state and local partners. They are busy and continuing to develop intelligence to keep the U.S. Border in our area safe. He explained their mission. “Basically it’s to serve and protect the American people and the way we do that is through our integrated use of vessels like the one you’re on now. We have 267 aircraft, and 283 vessels nationwide and we patrol the border. We check people coming and going, passports, citizenship, customs searches to make sure people aren’t bringing anything they’re not supposed to,” said Rose.
