The United States Customs and Border Protection is making changes to the hours of operation at ports of entry into Montana, beginning with changes at the Raymond port of entry on April 14th. The changes come after a series of town halls held in communities along the U.S. side of the border at the beginning of the month.

“CBP is looking at northern and southern borders to align staffing to workload,” explained Daniel Escobedo, the Area Port Director for the Sweetgrass, MT area. “We’re moving positions from underutilized locations to other locations in the state.”

Due to these changes, the hours of operation for the Raymond port of entry are being reduced from 24 hours a day to 6:00 a.m. to midnight.

“In Raymond’s case, we’re moving vacant positions, and staffing resources to places with higher volume in Montana so that we can better align with the workload that we have in our busier ports,” Escobedo added.

There could be further changes made to the ports of entry at Morgan, Scobey and Opheim in the coming weeks. CBP is going over the feedback they received during the town hall meetings and consultations. A decision is expected to be made to any possible changes by June 1st of this year.

While the hours of operation for those going to the United States through the port of entry at Raymond will be changing, for their CBSA counterparts at the Regway port of entry, there will be no changes. Regway will remain open 24 hours a day for travelers coming from the United States into Canada.