WASHINGTON ― A group of bipartisan senators are urging action by the federal government on stalled progress on the Northern Border Mission Center located at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County.

The group of senators who represent northern border states wrote last week to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, asking her to "fully build out the Center to help secure our Northern Border."

The Northern Border Mission Center was formally authorized in last year's defense policy bill to coordinate northern border security, with its anticipated home at the Selfridge base in Harrison Township. Congress also provided $3 million to the Department of Homeland Security to fund the new center.

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2025 said the DHS secretary within a year shall create the Northern Border Mission Center, whose purpose is to serve as a "forward deployed centralized operations support center for domain awareness, information sharing, intelligence, training and stakeholder engagement" with federal, state, tribal, local and international government partners along the northern border.

The idea was for the center to "enhance situational awareness at the Northern Border by ensuring there are personnel and activities dedicated to the Northern Border," the senators said in their letter to Noem, whose department has focused heavily on the southern border since President Donald Trump took office in January.

"While we appreciate your commitments to working on building out the Center, we fear that the Department has not provided adequate attention to this requirement and ask that you direct DHS and its components to fully build out the Center to help secure our Northern Border," they wrote.

The senators signing the letter included Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security panel; Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly; and Republican Sens. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota and Susan Collins of Maine.

They highlighted a 2019 Government Accountability Office report that found gaps in technology that the U.S. Border Patrol uses to get a sense for what's happening along the country's 5,525-mile-long northern border. Even where the Border Patrol has adequate technology, the report found the staff had challenges operating it in snow and cold weather.

The senators asked Noem to convene her staff "to ensure that the Department is best positioned to fully utilize the Center to enhance Northern Border security."

They also want a briefing on the progress made to advance the center and fulfill the requirements outlined in last year's NDAA by Dec. 19.

A request for comment to DHS on Friday was not immediately returned.

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