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Washington, D.C.—The head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today welcomed the support of a coalition of Texas elected officials and other leaders from towns along the U.S.-Mexican border for NTEU’s continuing efforts to secure the funding needed for additional U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel at the nation’s southwestern border ports of entry.

“I am pleased to see the recognition the Texas Border Coalition (TBC) is giving to the clear and pressing need for additional personnel at southwestern border crossing points,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents the 24,000-employee CBP workforce.

In a document produced by the TBC for a meeting tomorrow in Laredo, Tex., titled “Texas Land Ports of Entry Crisis Conference,” the coalition called for investment of $6 billion to upgrade port infrastructure and an additional 5,000 CBP Officers over the next four years. TBC is made up of border town mayors, county judges and economic development commissioners.

For its part, NTEU has been leading the way in seeking additional frontline homeland security employees, along with improvements in port facilities to aid in accomplishing the vital CBP missions.

Most recently, President Kelley testified on this subject in late October before a House Homeland Security subcommittee. She told the House members that increased staffing is the key to the more effective movement of people and goods at the land ports of entry, while at the same time ensuring that illegal drugs, money generated by the drug trade, weapons and other dangerous items—and people—are stopped at the border.

The NTEU leader also used her testimony to repeat her call for an end to CBP’s much-maligned ‘One Face at the Border’ initiative, put in place by the previous administration, and which has resulted in a significant dilution of inspectional expertise among inspectors of the three legacy agencies merged to make up CBP.

Moreover, President Kelley said, the ‘One Face’ program has resulted in a “huge expansion of the duties of each officer” and effectively reduced the quality of cargo inspections at the border.

In its document, the TBC argued that, given the more than 250 million legal crossings at the 42 land ports along the 2,000-mile U.S. border with Mexico every year—nearly 300,000 an hour—“the land ports of entry on the U.S. southwestern border have become America’s weakest link in border security.”

It noted that additional manpower is particularly important since beefed up enforcement along the U.S.-Mexican border between legitimate crossing points has led drug smugglers and others to concentrate their efforts on breaching the U.S. border at the ports of entry rather than between them.

NTEU is supporting H.R. 1655, the Putting Our Resources Towards Security Act, introduced by Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), which would address the goals of additional frontline and support personnel at ports of entry. The TBC called for its enactment, as well.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.