CBP Gets Green Light for Joint Operations Abroad, Plus a Five-Year Fund to Pay for Overseas Mishaps

This bill, the Combatting International Drug Trafficking and Human Smuggling Partnership Act of 2025, is essentially an expansion pack for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). It updates the Homeland Security Act to give CBP officers—specifically those with Air and Marine Operations authority—the ability to conduct joint operations in foreign countries, provided the U.S. has an agreement with that nation.

What kind of joint operations? Think monitoring, tracking, and deterring illegal drugs, human smuggling, and terrorist threats directed at the U.S. It also covers “other threats to the security or economy of the United States,” which is a pretty broad category, plus emergency humanitarian efforts like search and rescue or medical assistance. Essentially, CBP gets to push the border out, working with foreign partners to stop problems before they get to our shores. This is a big deal because it formalizes and expands the scope of what CBP can do outside of the country, potentially making a dent in trafficking networks at the source.

The Liability Clause: Who Pays for Broken Stuff?

Here’s the part that hits the wallet: Section 2 authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security to use existing departmental operating expenses to pay claims for money damages that arise from these CBP operations abroad. Think of it like this: if a joint operation in another country accidentally damages someone’s property or causes injury, the U.S. government can pay for it using funds already set aside for running the department. This authority is set to expire five years after the bill is enacted.

This provision creates a clear pathway for compensation, which is good, but it also raises a couple of flags. First, it pulls money from “operating expenses.” That means the funds used to pay for a claim in a foreign country are funds that won't be available for domestic CBP needs, like staffing ports of entry or maintaining equipment. For U.S. taxpayers, this is a cost shift—we are now funding international liability claims directly from the agency’s budget, potentially stretching resources thin.

The Fine Print on Foreign Claims

If you’re a foreign national whose property gets damaged during one of these joint operations, you only have a two-year window to file a claim. Two years sounds like a long time, but navigating U.S. legal procedures from abroad, especially in countries with limited infrastructure or language barriers, can be incredibly difficult. This tight deadline could mean that many legitimate claims simply expire before the affected person can figure out how to file them. It’s a mechanism for payment, but one with a potentially restrictive entry point.

On the bright side, there’s a transparency requirement: Once the five-year claims authority expires, the Secretary must report to Congress, detailing every payment made—who received the money, the amount, the country, and the justification. This ensures that even though the money comes from operating funds, Congress gets a full accounting of how much was spent on liability overseas and why.