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Washington, D.C.—An appropriate follow-up to the tributes paid by the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to officers of that agency who have died in the line of duty would be to extend to CBP officers the Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) status that has so long been unfairly denied to them, the leader of their union said today.

CBP was an active participant in and around Washington in the tributes to fallen officers recognized during National Police Week, which began last Tuesday and ends today.

“By every measure, these men and women are law enforcement officers,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). LEO status, which carries with it an option to retire after 20 years of service, “not only clearly is warranted for them,” the NTEU leader said, “the continuing denial of it is shameful.”

NTEU is pressing for passage of H.R. 1002, bipartisan legislation that would extend LEO status to CBP officers.

Every year in late winter, as part of NTEU’s annual Legislative Conference, the union—joined by CBP officials—holds a candlelight vigil for fallen CBP employees at the National Law Enforcement Officers memorial in downtown Washington.

The vigil, which is attended by elected federal officials as well as by CBP employees from around the nation, includes the reading aloud of the names of some 75 legacy Customs officers who have died in the line of duty. Customs became part of CBP when the Department of Homeland Security was established.

“We are reminded of the sacrifices of these brave men and women not only at times like the NTEU candlelight vigil and National Police Week,” President Kelley said, “but by looking at the dangerous, demanding work they perform every day on behalf of our nation.”

She noted that in recent months, CBP officers have been involved in three shooting incidents at various U.S. border crossings. “There simply can be no denying that these dedicated public servants qualify as law enforcement officers,” she said, promising that NTEU will continue pressing for what she described as “something that rightfully should belong to these workers—LEO status.”

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 federal workers in 30 agencies and departments, including nearly 16,000 in CBP.