Senator Collins Calls on Homeland Security Secretary to Address CBP Staffing Issues Threatening Eastport’s Tourism Season

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Washington, D.C. – At a hearing to review the Fiscal Year 2025 budget request for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Senator Susan Collins, Vice Chair of the Appropriations Committee, called on Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to help find a solution to staffing issues found at Maine’s ports that are threatening the arrival of international cruise ships in Eastport this fall.  During the hearing, Senator Collins also highlighted her concern that the President’s budget request does not do enough to address the flood of illegal migrants and fentanyl entering the United States.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials recently informed the City of Eastport that the agency cannot accommodate the four planned international cruise ship arrivals this fall, even though CBP staffed a larger number of international cruise ship arrivals in Eastport last year, and Bar Harbor is seeing a reduction in international cruise ship arrivals.

“The cruise ship industry is vital to many Maine communities and delivers millions in economic benefits to our state annually.  This is the flip side of the problems that we're now seeing on the southwest border, creating also problems on the northeast border and northern border in general,” said Senator Collins.  “Mr. Secretary, what I'm asking from you today is to look into this staffing issue and follow up with me, to try to resolve this problem.”

“The Eastport Port Authority thanks Senator Susan Collins for taking the time to bring real issues, affecting real operations in our parts of the world to the forefront.  To see a Cabinet Secretary have a hearing start off by being asked specifically about issues of our port, and our friends to the south in nearby Bar Harbor, shows that good representation matters,” said Chris Gardner, Executive Director for the Port of Eastport.  “Let us hope this work lends itself to us to finding the solutions we need to continue to grow our port and continue to bring much needed economic activity to the entire region.”

Last year, Senator Collins raised similar concerns to Secretary Mayorkas when CBP refused to provide services to an international ferry service between Bar Harbor and Nova Scotia unless the ferry service paid the full annual salaries of four CBP officials – even though the ferry only utilizes CBP services for a few months each year.

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