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Rep. Joyce introduces bill to strengthen border’s law enforcement

U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce is proposing a bipartisan bill to strengthen law enforcement operations and collaboration along the nation’s southern border for the third time in less than three years.

The bill, the Advanced Border Coordination Act, would establish joint operation centers along the border between federal, state, local and Native American tribal agencies to serve as centralized operating hubs tasked with coordinating border operations, information sharing and workforce training. The goal is to detect and decrease criminal activity such as illegal border crossings and human trafficking.

Joyce, R-Bainbridge, whose district includes all of Trumbull County, introduced the bill in 2022 and in 2024.

In both sessions, it was sent to three House committees for consideration: Judiciary, Ways and Means, and Homeland Security. The bill was sponsored late in both sessions and died before ever having a hearing.

This time, Joyce and the bill’s other lead House sponsors — U.S. Reps. Juan Ciscomani, R-Arizona; Susie Lee, D-New York; and Chris Pappas, D-New Hampshire — and Senate sponsors — Catherine Cortez Mastro, D-Nevada, and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tennessee — introduced the proposal at the beginning of the legislative session.

This proposal, which is awaiting assignment to a committee or committees, has until the end of 2026 to be enacted into law.

Joyce said when he was chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s Homeland Security Subcommittee, he visited the southern border, “spoke directly with border patrol agents and held hearings to uncover the direct causes of the disastrous border crisis we have experienced for years.”

He added: “This bill is a step towards restoring the rule of law and securing our borders by establishing critical joint operations to detect drug and human trafficking and disrupt criminal networks. Americans deserve to feel safe and to actually be safe and this bill will help accomplish that goal.”

The proposal would establish at least two joint operations centers to help various agencies coordinate efforts, require the hubs to serve as resources to improve field operation and intelligence sharing as well as help and deter criminal activity and training coordination.

The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is the nominee awaiting confirmation — would be directed to issue an annual report to Congress on the centers’ operational activities and recommendations for coordinated federal agencies on the southern border.

Cortez Mastro said: “Border security shouldn’t be a controversial or partisan issue. We need to take commonsense steps to strengthen our border security and make sure our law enforcement officers are working together.”

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