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Kelley Says Bush Visit To New Jersey Seaports Highlights Need For More Border Security Resources

Washington, D.C.—With President Bush scheduled to visit two northern New Jersey seaports on Monday, the leader of the union representing nearly 12,000 Customs Service employees said today that while she welcomes the focus that it will put on port security issues, the critical element in safeguarding the security of Americans is additional resources for front-line border security operations.

“The need for substantial additional resources for Customs, and for all federal agencies involved in border security work, is clear,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). “Yet, in its proposal to create a Department of Homeland Security, the administration has made it clear that it intends to provide neither additional funding nor more personnel.”

Both money and staffing are failing to keep pace with the rapid growth of containerized cargo at the nation’s ports, the NTEU leader added. “The combined New York-New Jersey seaports receive more than 6,000 marine cargo containers every day, and given their present resource level, Customs employees can inspect no more than a small fraction of them,” she said.

Nearly 7,000 of the Customs employees represented by NTEU are inspectors and canine enforcement officers whose responsibilities include cargo inspection as the first line of defense against terrorism, money-laundering, drug-smuggling and other crimes.

“This lack of resources for border security personnel is a nationwide problem,” President Kelley said, noting that Customs employees have been operating on a Level 1 alert—the agency’s highest operational

status—since Sept. 11, with many inspectors and others continuing to work six- and seven-day weeks made up of 12- and 16-hour days.

Kelley reiterated NTEU’s concerns about language in the legislative proposal to create the Department of Homeland Security that puts at risk the civil service rights and protections of the employees who would be transferred from other departments, including Customs. That issue was underscored by questions raised by several members of Congress during hearings on the homeland security proposal this week.

“Nothing good for employees—nor for that matter, for the nation—can come from a proposal to give a blank check concerning workers’ rights to short-term political appointees,” Kelley said.

NTEU represents some 150,000 federal workers in 25 agencies and departments.