Tester meets with Trump's pick for Homeland Security secretary

National security was the center of discussion Wednesday when U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., met with retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Tester said he requested the meeting with Kelly to ensure Montana’s security needs are in mind under the incoming administration.

Tester and Kelly discussed the REAL ID Act, the Visa Waiver Program and border security in Montana, among other things. He said the meeting lasted about 45 minutes, in which he and Kelly had virtually no disagreements.

Kelly was formerly the commander of the military arm overseeing operations in South and Central America, as well as the Caribbean. In that position, he keyed on homeland-security issues such as drug trafficking and smuggling activity along the southern U.S. border.

“He’s not a rookie,” Tester told the Inter Lake Tuesday. “He’s been around and I think he understands that the challenges are different on the northern border from the southern border; the urban border and the rural border.”

Tester said that how Homeland Security functions under a Trump administration will depend on how Kelly chooses to staff and manages the department’s 240,000 employees.

“If he can empower those employees on the ground, I think he has the ability to make national security the important issue that it is,” Tester said. “His real value is how he motivates an agency that is very low in morale to make sure they can do the best job they can with the resources they have.”

Tester’s conversation with Kelly was partially steered by a pool of comments and questions submitted by Montanans. Tester said most of the national security questions were concerned with the REAL ID Act and the northern border security.

Montana’s deadline to comply with the nationwide REAL ID Act is Jan. 30. The act, which Congress passed in 2005, requires minimum federal security standards in order to travel by plane in the U.S. Tester has been critical of the REAL ID Act program, opposing a nationwide database system that he believes violates privacy rights.

Tester said Kelly agreed on the importance of keeping dangerous travelers from airlines using an ID system, while ensuring personal information couldn’t be hacked from a large-scale database system.

“That’s where the rub is,” Tester said. “We have to have a database that if you’re north of Seattle or Maine or Montana, they can access that ID. We have to be able to do that while still maintaining privacy.”

Tester said he felt he had Kelly’s ear on the issue Montanans brought to Tester.

“I would tell you that he did not have a solution for the problem, but he’s willing to work on it,” Tester said. “It’s not going to be easy but I think we can do it.”

IN DISCUSSING border security along Montana’s 540-mile boundary with Canada, Tester said he invited Kelly to Montana to speak with Border Patrol agents, as well as other agencies associated with Operation Stonegarden, which coordinates efforts between federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement.

Tester said he spoke with Kelly about the potential for “bad folks” and drugs to enter the U.S. through the Montana-Canadian border. That discussion led to a few potential solutions, including understaffed agencies in a widespread area like rural northern Montana.

“We talked about manpower, technology, radar; we covered the gamut” of solutions, Tester said. “He did say something that was spot on: ‘I’m here to enforce the laws. I’m not here to make them up.’ I think that’s very good.”

Tester’s and Kelly’s views were consistent on the Visa Waiver Program, in which Tester said the department does not adequately inform immigrants when their visas expire. This problem, Tester said, is partially why so many immigrants remain in the country illegally after their visa expires.

“(Kelly) said we don’t do a good enough job letting people know it’s time to go home when their visas run out,” Tester said. “We make them jump through a bunch of hoops to get the visa and when it runs out we’ve got to let them know.”

Tester said addressing this issue could mean providing more staff, or changing the system to better track visa permits.

If confirmed by the Senate later this month as Homeland Security secretary, Kelly would also be tasked with overseeing security along the U.S.-Mexican border. There’s been little talk about the wall Trump proposed throughout his campaign, and Tester said his meeting with Kelly also did not include a conversation about the wall.

“We did not discuss the wall,” Tester said. “From his perspective, it’s a multi-faceted strategy to keep our borders safe to make sure we’re using not only things like a wall, but manpower and technology to secure the border, depending on the region, area and climate. Each one has a role to play.”

Tester said Kelly will stand before the Homeland Security Senate Committee prior to his potential confirmation. After a committee hearing, the Senate will hold a floor debate before voting on the final confirmation.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.