DULUTH — U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber said he supports a bill introduced in the U.S. Senate that would allow federal immigration enforcement officials to use motorized vehicles and build roads, surveillance equipment, fences and structures in federally designated wilderness within 100 miles of the U.S. border, including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

The Republican from Hermantown, whose district includes the BWCAW, did not answer a question on whether he would introduce a companion bill in the House of Representatives.

But in a statement to the News Tribune, Stauber said on his trip to the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona in 2024, he “saw America’s federal lands suffer from environmental damage due to left-behind trash, human waste, illegal trails, and abandoned campfires.”

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