Improving Coordination for the Northern Border Act

Not later than one year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall establish the Northern Border Coordination Center.

The purpose of the Center shall be to serve as the Department’s forward deployed centralized coordination center for operations, domain awareness, information sharing, intelligence, training, and stakeholder engagement with Federal, State, Tribal, local, and international government partners along the northern border of the United States. The Center shall be placed along the northern border at a location that is collocated with an existing U.S. Border Patrol sector headquarters, Air and Marine Operations branch, and United States Coast Guard air station, and other facility at which Department activities are carried out.

The Center shall perform the functions described in this subsection in addition to any other functions assigned by the Secretary.

The Center, in collaboration with relevant offices and components of the Department, shall—

(A) serve as a coordination mechanism for operational components for the implementation, evaluation, and updating of the Northern Border Strategy and any successor strategy; and

(B) support the development of best practices and policies for personnel along the northern border to support such implementation.

The Center shall serve as a training location to support the delivery of training or exercises for Department personnel and Federal, State, Tribal, local, and international government partners.

In this section:

The term Center means the Northern Border Coordination Center established pursuant to subsection (a).

The term Department means the Department of Homeland Security.

The term Secretary means the Secretary of Homeland Security.

The Center established pursuant to subsection (a) shall be established separate and distinct from the Secretary’s authorities under section 708 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 348).