Border Patrol’s Authority Limited to 25 Miles from Border: New Bill Mandates Transparency on Interior Arrests

The “Keeping Our Agents on the Line Act” is a piece of legislation aimed at hitting the reset button on how the U.S. Border Patrol operates, especially when it comes to interior enforcement. Straight up, this bill says Border Patrol agents can generally only exercise their law enforcement authority within 25 miles of the international land border or territorial sea. It also requires the agency to start collecting and publicizing serious data on checkpoint efficiency and what happens when agents interact with citizens and residents away from the border.

Back to the Border: The 25-Mile Rule

For those of us who live or work near the border, this is a big deal. The bill directly addresses the finding that Border Patrol was delegated nationwide interior arrest authority back in 2025, which, according to the text, led to agents operating far from the border and making arrests, sometimes without warrants, including arrests of U.S. citizens (Sec. 2). The core of this bill (Sec. 3) is the 25-mile operational limit. If you’re a truck driver, a traveling salesperson, or just a resident in a border state, this means the federal law enforcement presence you encounter should be significantly reduced once you move past that 25-mile line. The bill is essentially saying, “Stick to the border security job you’re trained for.”

There are only two exceptions to this hard limit. First, if there’s a declared major disaster, like a hurricane or massive earthquake, the President can authorize operations beyond 25 miles. Second, and maybe most relevant, if a state or local official makes a lawful request for help in an immediate or imminent life-threatening emergency, Border Patrol can assist. This second exception is important because it relies on local officials’ discretion to call for help, which could be interpreted broadly. However, the intent is clearly to prevent routine interior enforcement and focus the agents on the actual border.

Shining a Light on Checkpoints and Arrests

For anyone concerned about government accountability, the data requirements in Section 4 are significant. The bill mandates that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) must start documenting and publicly reporting detailed information. For checkpoints, this means creating a performance model to measure how effective they actually are, comparing apprehensions to undetected illegal activity. If you’ve ever been stuck at a checkpoint and wondered if it was worth the delay, this data is supposed to answer that question.

Even more critical is the reporting on agents operating inside the U.S. away from the border. CBP must now report exactly how many agents are doing this, what their training is for Fourth Amendment compliance (searches and seizures), and the outcome of every single interaction those agents have with U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and non-citizens. This includes whether the person was stopped, detained, arrested, or charged. This level of mandatory public transparency is designed to address the congressional finding that many violent encounters have involved Border Patrol agents who aren't sufficiently trained for complex criminal investigations—it’s a direct check on potentially over-broad authority.