For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 8, 2003
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ONE FACE AT THE BORDER:
Historically, travelers entering the United States make three stops
- an Immigration inspector, a Customs inspector and an Agriculture
inspector, if they are carrying food or plants - with three separate
Homeland Security employees. Today, the Department's U.S. Customs and
Border Protection (CBP) is following through on a commitment to unify
this system to process travelers more rapidly and conveniently while
simultaneously identifying and addressing potential risks.
The "One Face at the Border" initiative unifies the inspection
process by cross-training CBP inspectors to perform all three
inspection functions.
- Travelers will now meet a single primary inspection officer
specially trained to determine who needs to go through secondary
inspections -- another significant step for Homeland Security to create
efficiencies and unity around a single mission.
- The primary inspector will quickly process law-abiding travelers.
The primary inspector will refer travelers whose information, demeanor
or actions raise questions to secondary inspectors for additional
questioning to:
- Prevent terrorists and terrorist weapons and contraband from
entering the U.S.
- Deny entry to people seeking to enter the U.S. illegally
- Protect U.S. agricultural and economic interests from harmful pests
and diseases
- Collect revenue
- The secondary inspection consists of trained Counter-Terrorism
Response (CTR) inspectors -- recently integrated passenger rover teams
and analysis units designated to conduct follow-up examinations of
questionable passengers who could have possible ties to terrorism.
These secondary, or CTR inspectors, will be responsible for:
- Coordinating with the local Passenger Analysis Unit and National
Targeting Center to ensure that the referred travelers are researched
fully.
- Conducting a thorough interview and examination of referred
travelers and documenting the results.
- Detaining travelers who they find to be in violation of the law.
- By utilizing one employee to perform all three primary inspection
functions, the Department will be able to deploy additional employees
into secondary inspection thus targeting our resources towards those
passengers with suspicious indicators.
Unifying three dedicated but separate workforces into one U.S.
Customs and Border Protection Officer, cross-trained to address all
three inspection needs, is another significant step toward Homeland
Security's effort to make the most effective use of the Department's
assets and thus better secure our homeland.
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