CBP Hoping to Minimize Future Customs 'Chaos' at Southern Border
CBP is preparing for the possibility of another immigration surge at the southern border similar to the one that stretched the agency’s customs resources earlier this year, said Robert Perez, CBP’s deputy commissioner. Perez, speaking at a National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America conference on Sept. 23, highlighted CBP’s response efforts to the initial surge but said the crisis led to “longer wait times” for cargo clearance and diverted a large number of the agency’s resources and officers.
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“Of course it was probably a bit chaotic,” Perez said. “Because we’ve gotten no help at all from our congressional leadership … we’re guarding against the reality of that coming back.”
The immigration crisis previously caused CBP’s cargo processing time to nearly quadruple and forced the agency to send more than 500 of its customs officers to southwestern border ports to help border patrol (see 1907230029). At the height of the crisis, CBP was forced to surrender more than 1,000 of its customs officers and agents, Perez said, including more than 700 officers who were repositioned along the U.S-Mexico border and more than 300 officers from the U.S.’s northern border. Perez said the crisis diverted “up to 50 percent of the enforcement capability along that southern border.”
CBP is now back to operating normally, he said, and every repositioned officer is at their original station. “For now,” he said. Perez said the agency is trying to find ways to minimize impact on U.S. traders if there is another immigration surge, but said a crisis would likely cause some of the same issues. “The last thing we want to do to all of you is to create any sense or semblance of chaos at the border,” Perez said. “I’m confident in what we’re doing right now, and I’m going to be in the ear of those people back up on the Hill very soon. A lot of us will. And we’re going to persevere.”