Customs agency and Border Patrol to team up

Associated Press

TUCSON - Officers from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection are teaming up with U.S. Border Patrol agents to jointly man both inland checkpoints and border crossings in Arizona that once were the exclusive domain of the respective agencies.

The joint deployment program is believed to be the first time the two groups have been deployed together in Arizona, spokesman for both agencies said. Customs officers are charged with ferreting out contraband and illegal immigrants at the nation’s border crossings, while Border Patrol agents’ duty is to find illegal immigrants inland and in border areas away from official entry crossings.

Both agencies fall under the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection arm, but they normally operate separately.

The goal is to slow illegal immigration and drug smuggling in the Southwest border’s busiest corridor. Since Oct. 1, the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector accounted for 51 percent of all marijuana seized and 46 percent of all apprehensions made on the southern border. It’s been the busiest sector for apprehensions since 1998 and for marijuana seizures since 2003.
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