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Washington D.C. — The most important step that can be taken to boost security at the nation’s 327 air, land and sea ports of entry is to reestablish the specialization among homeland security officers that was lost by combining the responsibilities of three employees into one, the leader of the union representing thousands of front-line borders workers told a key House Subcommittee today.

“The ‘One Face at the Border’ initiative has resulted in job responsibility overload and dilution of customs, immigration and agriculture inspection specialization, and in weakening the quality of passenger and cargo inspections,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

The NTEU leader offered that assessment, and a variety of recommendations for improving border security, at a hearing of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Management, Investigations and Oversight.

The ‘One Face’ program was put in place in September 2003 by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). It combines the work of inspectors from the legacy Customs Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service and Agriculture Department into a single new position at ports of entry—the CBP Officer (CBPO).

President Kelley repeatedly has called upon the agency to drop the program, noting that the processes, procedures and skills “are very different at land, sea and air ports, as are the training and skill sets needed for passenger processing, cargo and agriculture inspection.”

Along with her sharp criticism of the ‘One Face’ program, the NTEU leader offered these recommendations to address staffing, training and retention and recruitment gaps:

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Fill existing job vacancies and increase CBPO staffing, pointing out that CBP has over the past three years hired more new managers than front-line workers;

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Establish—and follow-through on—an in-depth on-the-job training program, including allocating specific times during their tours of duty for CBPOs to do all assigned computer-based training, and providing for structured discussion times to accompany such training;

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Make refresher courses available to all CBPOs upon request;

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Repeal the regressive personnel rules the department is seeking to implement;

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Provide law enforcement officer status for all CBPOs and legacy inspectors as a vital tool in improving the department’s recruitment and retention efforts—and as an important sign that DHS recognizes the problems of low morale among its employees; and

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Permit employee input in the shift assignment system. The unilateral decision by CBP management to eliminate any employee voice in this routine workplace decision-making process has had a serious negative impact on employee morale, Kelley said.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments, including more than 21,000 in CBP.