Enhancing Border Security

2/10/2000

SUBCOMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION SENATE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY

Chairman Abraham and members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to submit the views of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) on the issue of border security. NTEU represents over 150,000 federal employees. About 8,000 of these workers are inspectors and canine enforcement officers (CEOs) of the U.S. Customs Service. They are stationed at 301 ports of entry around the United States and in Canada and the Caribbean.

Customs inspectors and CEOs make up our nation's first line of defense in the war on drugs. In addition to this primary mission, they are responsible for stopping sophisticated and dangerous narcotics smuggling, international money-launderers, arms smugglers, child-pornographers, fugitives from justice and, the subjects of this hearing, suspected international terrorists.

We are pleased and proud that you invited Inspector Diana Dean to testify today about her role in safeguarding American lives by apprehending Ahmed Ressam at the Canadian border in Port Angeles, Washington. Inspector Dean is a member of NTEU, and one of the brave officers who risks her life daily in the performance of her duty. No one knows what tragedy would have befallen American communities in mid-December 1999 had Ahmed Ressam been cleared to enter the United States with over 100 pounds of bomb making supplies in the trunk of his car. In addition to Diana Dean, Customs inspectors, Mark Johnson, Carmon Clem and Mike Chapman are owed a debt of gratitude from us for their quick and clear thinking and their responsiveness.

What many people do not know is that these inspectors, the first line of defense against terrorism, are not considered to be federal law enforcement officers under current statute and regulation. This is a long-standing injustice that must be corrected. H.R. 1228 and S. 718 would extend law enforcement officer status to Customs and INS inspectors and give them the benefit of twenty-year retirement that they so obviously deserve.

It has become increasingly more difficult for the Customs Service to recruit the best and the brightest to the ranks of Customs inspectional personnel. Once new Customs' recruits learn that they are not provided the benefits of law enforcement officers in other agencies and the private sector, they take their newly trained skills elsewhere. This is a preventable situation that can be cured by designating Customs inspectors and CEOs as law enforcement officers.

Customs inspectors work side-by-side with Customs agents, FBI agents, and local police to carry out anti-terrorist contingency plans. Around the country, they take the lead in boarding ships and suspicious flights searching for stowaways and illegal narcotics and contraband. A Customs inspector's training includes criminal law, arrest authority and arrest procedures, seizure and search authority techniques, self-defense tactics, frisk and pat down procedures, hand cuffing, and take down procedures, anti-terrorism, and firearms use.

All inspectors are issued firearms to protect themselves, their fellow inspectors and the public. Commissioner Kelly's recent decision to allow Customs inspectors to carry their weapons 24 hours a day was a necessary response to the constant threat of violence faced by inspectors in the performance of their duties at all ports. Currently inspectors and CEOs are required to qualify on a firing range three times a year.

All of the training and experience mentioned above was used in the apprehension of Ahmed Ressam. Inspector Dean used her experienced and skills in interrogation to become highly suspicious of Mr. Ressam's responses to routine questioning. Inspector Mark Johnson was required to pat down Mr. Ressam in the secondary area. After he escaped detention, Inspector Johnson chased him and "took him down." He hand cuffed Ressam and placed him under arrest. This is not a rare occurrence at a port of entry. This is a job requirement. These Customs inspectors and their fellow inspectors and CEOs around the country should be granted law enforcement officer status under Title 5, section 8336(c)(1).

In the immediate wake of Ahmed Ressam's arrest in December, Customs Commissioner Raymond Kelly declared the agency to be in a heightened state of alert. This declaration forced a look at the working conditions and security assessment on the Northern Border. The picture was not pretty. In many areas of the 4,000-mile border, travelers were being cleared to enter the United States by a remote video inspection system (RVIS). This system requires travelers to look into a camera manned by a Customs inspector positioned, in some cases, over 100 miles away. The effectiveness of this method of clearance is obviously flawed. There is no way of requiring a traveler to drive his or her vehicle to an open entry port for a more thorough inspection, and what criminal would comply with that request from an inspector on a monitor. RVIS has been suspended since the heightened state of alert. It is our hope that the Customs Service will permanently abandon the RVIS program to concentrate on more effective and efficient ways of protecting our borders.

The heightened state of alert confirmed what NTEU has been emphasizing for years. The Customs Service is poorly funded and sorely lacks the adequate resources, staffing and technology to keep pace with the burgeoning trade and travel across America's borders. After Ressam's capture, the issue of inadequate staffing levels was not just a matter of travelers tolerating long lines at border crossings, we were forced to examine staffing levels from the perspective of the safety of human lives from terrorist attack.

The heightened state of alert required inspectors to relocate to the Northern Border from inland airports and all over the United States. There was immediate expanded shift coverage where Customs had been operating at below minimum staffing levels. The "one-man" ports of entry were recognized to be too dangerous and risky, so two inspectors were assigned to all locations.

Inspectors worked extra shifts, some clocking 16-hour days all week. Most worked double shifts at least twice a week. All rank and file inspectors as well as non-uniformed Customs employees and their families made sacrifices. Approved vacation and holiday leave was canceled; the days were long and stressful. The weather conditions were horrendous and the atmosphere was one of danger and apprehension. These were extreme conditions under which to work. The Customs employees, who gladly gave what was required of them to their agency during this time, must be appreciated and recognized for it. Through their hard work, we greeted the new century without tragedy.

The Customs Service is now operating in a scaled back state of alert, but the problems have not disappeared. Additional resources have not been budgeted to hire more Customs inspectors on the Northern Border, and the woefully inadequate staffing levels will remain unless there is a push from Congress to recognize this dangerous and unacceptable situation and appropriate more funds for Customs.

We welcome Senator Abraham's proposal, S. 745, that would authorize more staffing and resources for Customs, and we pledge to support this bill and any others that recognize that adequately funding the Customs Service and supporting the employees who perform its mission should be a legislative priority.

In August the Senate passed its version of H.R. 1833, the Customs Authorization Act, that would authorize, but not appropriate, additional resources and staffing for Customs all around the country. We commend the Senate for its interest in this issue, and for supporting the dedicated men and women of the Cstoms Service by refusing to include in its bill attacks on their night pay that were included in the House's version of H.R. 1833.

Thank you.