Senate Subcommittee Calls for CBP Reform on In-Bond Shipments
Senators and witnesses called for greater protection for shipping companies that are the victims of cargo theft, saying that CBP penalizes them unfairly, during a Feb. 27 hearing on the rise in cargo theft.
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Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., hosted the panel in the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, Freight, Pipelines, and Safety.
Will Johnson, chief special agent at the BNSF Railway Police Department and second vice president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, said that CBP has to do better when it comes to processes for in-bond shipments: "[W]hile the United States Customs and Border Protection has implemented changes to in-bond shipment processes, there is a further need to ease the burden on crime victims by allowing CBP the authority to waive regulatory fines when cases are proven that theft had occurred again."
Johnson said that it is important to think of DHS, including CBP, as more than just an inspection agency but also as an investigative agency. "Whether the in-bond shipment is cleared at the port, or it's cleared at a location closer to destination," if the shipment is attacked before it has been inspected, there is a threat to shipment integrity and a need for "having greater engagement from [DHS] in the investigative process whenever there is an in-bond shipment seal breach."
As it currently stands, the shipper bears responsibility for the regulatory fines "because that shipment arrived at the facility without its bonded seal," Johnson said. But as there is not a "complimentary criminal investigation" from CBP on what happened to the shipment before it could be inspected, the shipper "is ultimately victimized twice. One, their product is stolen while it's being shipped, and then second, they're facing an administrative process to have those regulatory fines reviewed," he said.
He said that CBP is unwilling to consider waiving the regulatory fines until "after the citations have been issued, and then the victim responds in an administrative process," which can drag on, to the detriment of the shipping company.
Sen. Ben Lujan, D-N.M., said that more has to be done to work with the Mexican government to combat cargo theft. He said that shipments of goods are being robbed "on the Mexico side of the border," and that oftentimes products "never make it into the United States." He then asked Johnson if "it's important for the U.S. law enforcement to coordinate with Mexican law enforcement" on this matter. Johnson responded: "Absolutely."
The ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., lamented the Trump administration's actions to "gut" law enforcement agencies, saying this was the opposite of what was needed to combat "criminal trends like cargo theft and fraud."
Young fired back that it was the Democrats who were to blame for the situation because President Joe Biden "failed to enforce our border security."