Bill would keep border patrol agents close to the border, not in distant cities

David Lightman, The Sacramento Bee on Dec 24, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Sen. Adam Schiff and his allies want to keep border patrol agents near the border.

So they’ve introduced legislation requiring agents to work within 25 land miles of the border, except in exceptional circumstances.

Schiff, D-Calif., cited the 2022 school shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers as such an emergency. Agents would be permitted to act in such cases where “ lives are in immediate or imminent danger.”

The federal Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agencies had not provided a comment by deadline.

Trump administration officials have routinely lauded the job the agents are doing. “As the year comes to a close, we still have the most secure border of my lifetime thanks to the unwavering leadership of President Trump and his dedication to making America safe and prosperous,” border czar Thomas Homan tweeted.

Throughout 2025, border patrol agents have been deployed to enforce immigration laws in Los Angeles and areas far from international borders.

Border patrols in U.S. cities

“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,” Schiff said in a statement.

“Predictably, untrained Border Patrol Agents have been severely disruptive in the communities they’ve been deployed to, detaining U.S. citizens in their homes and workplaces, violently arresting local activists, and refusing to communicate with local law enforcement,” he said.

The Keeping Our Agents On the Line Act, co-sponsored with Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., would “clarify the zone of Border Patrol operation” so that it “does not exceed 25 land miles.”

It also recognizes “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.”

The bill would also bar “delegations of authority to the Border Patrol to ensure that agents can remain focused on their primary mission of ensuring a secure border and provide transparency in the form of public reports on data about various training and interactions with United States citizens and others.”

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