U.S. Customs and Border Protection is looking to fill a number of positions within the agency, including those on Montana's northern border, where remote assignments and slow hiring practices have posed challenges in recruiting and keeping candidates.

One union president said the shortages may be so severe that several Montana ports often run on what amounts to a skeleton crew, putting officers in unsafe situations. Annual training may be skipped because the port can't spare the employee.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., toured the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's air command center in Great Falls last week to explore the agency's challenges and needs.

Finding more employees, he found, stood high on the list of urgent needs.

"They're having a problem retaining these folks," Tester said. "It's a different world working in Whitlash than it is down south. So they're working on trying to recruit people from the northern tier states."

As a whole, the northern border is short an estimated 2,200 agents and officers. Tester said Montana's stretch of international border, at 545 miles, may lack a few hundred Customs officers, though the exact numbers are hard to pin down.

Mike Milne, a spokesman for the U.S. Customers and Border Protection at the Seattle field office, said the agency is always looking to fill vacant positions.

Milne said he had no specific numbers on how short staffed the agency was across Montana and its 12 ports of entry. Nor would he say for security reasons how many officers were currently placed along the northern border.

"I know we're making a concerted effort nationally to fill all our vacancies," Milne said. "There's always movement within the agency."

U.S. Customs and Border Protection recently held a recruiting fair in Great Falls. Milne said the agency has also hosted fairs in Seattle and Grand Forks, Mich., to find new candidates familiar with the northern tier.

"There are a number of positions open nationwide," Milne said. "We have a certain amount of positions nationally that are authorized and appropriated by Congress. There's a constant amount of turnover within the agency, just like there is anywhere else."

Loren Timmerman, president of National Treasury Employee's Union 321, which represents employees with U.S. Customers in Montana, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Alberta, called the shortage "substantial."

"They're not fully staffed -- they're not even close," Timmerman said.

Timmerman cited substantial manpower shortages at the Port of Sweetgrass, north of Shelby -- Montana's largest port of entry --along with the Port of Piegan, north of Cut Bank.

Timmerman said the shortage of employees can cause hardships on other officers, who must work longer hours. Overtime is authorized if the budget is available to pay for it. If the money's not there, Timmerman said, the port will run on what amounts to a skeleton crew.

"It happens here at Sweetgrass, where you'll only have one or two working with lots of other people," Timmerman said. "It can create an unsafe situation. People don't get the training they would normally get during the year. People get fed up and either quit or go somewhere else."

The shortage also may affect the U.S. Border Patrol, though a spokesman for the agency's Havre Sector, which covers Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and parts of Idaho, said the sector is currently staffed to authorized levels.

"Those agents who have relocated from the Havre Sector did so because of promotion, and when an agent leaves, their position is backfilled," said Alex Harrington. "However, the location and remoteness do pose challenges in recruiting."

A job posting for both the U.S. Customs and U.S. Border Patrol promotes its employees as safeguarding the American homeland and protecting the public against terrorism and the instruments of terror.

An entry level position starts at roughly $35,000 a year, according the job ad on the agency's Web page. The pay tops out at around $47,000.

"We look for people that are U.S. citizens, willing and committed to work for their county and government, who can pass certain tests and physical requirements," Milne said. "They need to be able to pass rigorous training at the federal law enforcement center in Georgia, and become proficient in firearms."

Reporter Martin Kidston: 447-4086 or mkidston@helenair.com