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Washington, D.C.—Only a single federal operation employs more law enforcement officers than does the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and yet these more than 17,000 dedicated border security employees continue to be denied the formal designation of federal law enforcement officer (LEO) and the retirement benefits that come with it.

“This continuing denial of LEO status for CBP Officers is not only wrong, it is indefensible,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents CBP employees.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report to the House Judiciary Committee identifies 17,168 CBP employees who qualify for LEO status under the GAO definition. According to GAO, law enforcement officers are individuals who are authorized as part of their work to perform any of four specific law enforcement functions: conduct criminal investigations, execute search warrants, make arrests or carry firearms.

That number amounts to 12.77 percent of all federal law enforcement officers, GAO said, trailing only the Bureau of Prisons, which accounts for 24.8 percent of such personnel.

NTEU has long argued that CBP Officers fit every reasonable definition of law enforcement officers and by virtue of the difficult and dangerous work they engage in every day are fully entitled to the right to retire at age 50 with 20 years of federal service that comes with LEO status.

In recent years, a growing and bipartisan body of House and Senate members has co-sponsored legislation that would extend the LEO status with respect to 20-year retirement to CBP Officers. “We intend to keep up our battle to right this longstanding wrong,” President Kelley said.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments, including nearly 15,000 in CBP.