U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Friday, Nov. 3.

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Friday, Nov. 3, urging members to address security concerns on the United States’ northern border.

Kelly told the committee that, while “all the attention has been” on the southern border, the 5,525-mile northern border was “almost completely unguarded.”

“There is one stretch of almost 500 miles where there is only one agent patrolling that area,” Kelly said. “One.”

He told the committee that federal Customs and Border Protection was “outnumbered at the northern border.”

In February 2023, Kelly and Montana’s Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-1st, founded the Northern Border Security Caucus to bring attention to issues of “illegal immigration and drug smuggling in the 13 states along the U.S.-Canadian border.

Last month, Kelly and Zinke introduced a resolution calling on Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Department of Homeland Security, to develop a formal plan to secure the northern border.

“I’m really concerned about the northern border because that’s the area I represent — at least in Erie,” he said.

The resolution is backed by Kelly and 15 House colleagues.

“We need more people to get on board with it,” Kelly said. “We need more people to give attention to it.”

Northern border security, according to Kelly, was an “immigration issue.”

“At the southern border, you have to cross a river,” he said. “At the northern border, you just have to take one step. There’s no line drawn. There’s no fence, there’s nothing.”

Northern border security, according to Kelly, was “more important than a Republican problem or a Democrat problem.”

“This is an American problem,” he said.

Kelly closed by telling the committee he intended to work on “even more inclusive” legislation.

“I’ll take this time to say, we will never, ever give up on this and protecting the American people,” Kelly said.