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Washington, D.C – In light of recent media attention spotlighting sharp increases in wait times at land border crossings from coast to coast, the president of the union representing thousands of front-line homeland security workers commended Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.) for hosting a public forum yesterday to address concerns about long lines and sometimes hours-long delays at checkpoints along the border of the United States and Canada.

Sanders said the current border backlog can be blamed on multiple factors, including poor morale and low staffing levels within the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“Staffing at the agency is inadequate,” Sanders told the media. “Turnover is very high and we have less manpower than we need. And frankly morale is very low.”

Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), wholeheartedly agreed. “Staffing levels at CBP remain far too low to handle air, land and seaport traffic,” she said. “In addition to media reports from around the country about long waits at border crossings and airports, CBP Officers in some ports of entry are stretched so thin they are being compelled to work overtime.”

A recent article in the Buffalo News stated that waits of one, two or three hours are not uncommon. The NTEU leader said the problem is not limited to the Canadian border. Just this week, the El Paso Times reported hours-long waits at the Mexican border.

“CBP employees are the first line of defense against terrorists, black-market weapons and illegal drugs entering this country,” Kelley said. “The administration should be seeking additional resources that allow them to fulfill their dual roles of facilitating trade and tourism, while defending our nation’s borders.”

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