Home Media Center News Releases

Washington, D.C.—Without the resources to hire additional personnel, the use of National Guard troops and the temporary shifting of Customs Service officers from one port to another “provides the appearance of security rather than any real increase in security,” an experienced Customs inspector told a key congressional subcommittee today.

New Orleans-based Customs Inspector Argent J. Acosta, who as president of Chapter 168 of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) represents some 216 Customs employees at the Port of New Orleans, offered that assessment in testimony to the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee.

Acosta, a 30-year Customs veteran, said that with current staffing levels, Customs officers throughout the country are able to inspect only about two percent of the 600,000 cargo containers entering our ports each year. Moreover, he told the subcommittee, during his years at Customs, the number of inspectors at the Port of New Orleans has fallen to about 29 from a high of more than 103.

“Customs employees are committed to the service of our country,” the NTEU chapter president said, “but it is impossible to do the job without sufficient resources and personnel.”

He underscored for Committee members the dangers of the job by relating details of the death on October 30 of Customs Inspector Thomas Murray, a 31-year agency veteran, who was overcome by toxic fumes in the hold of a cargo ship he was inspecting.

“He was aware that the vessel he was searching had previously brought illegal drugs into the United States,” Acosta said, “so he was determined to be as thorough as possible. He didn’t know what dangers he would encounter when he went below deck, but he went because of his commitment to doing his job.”

The long-time NTEU chapter leader urged Congress to provide adequate resources for Customs on a continuing basis, both for personnel and needed improvements in technology. And he urged that greater attention be paid to the physical security of the nation’s ports.

Nationally, NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 25 agencies and departments, including some 12,000 in Customs—7,000 of them inspectors, like Acosta, and canine enforcement officers who work on the front-lines of the battle against terrorism, illegal drugs and contraband merchandise.