Union calls for increased staffing at border crossings

By ANDY MEDICI | Last Updated: May 17, 2011


Recent increases in the number of Customs and Border Protection officers at the nation's land ports of entry are "woefully short of critical need," according to the union president that represents those officers.

Border crossing stations in Vermont have made no new hires in more than two years, and 10 percent fewer CBP officers are processing about 20 percent more traffic, Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, told the Senate Judiciary border security subcommittee on Tuesday.

She called on Congress to provide funding for more officers. While the U.S. border with Mexico has 24 land ports of entry, the Canadian border has 150 and is often overlooked, she said.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., concerned by delays at land ports of entries, said the Department of Homeland Security, CBP's parent agency, should look at staffing levels along the northern border and not just along the Mexico border.

While the number of Border Patrol agents more than doubled from 10,000 in 2004 to about 20,500 in 2010, the number of CBP officers grew 14 percent, from 18,134 in 2005 to 20,687 in 2010, according to CBP.

Congress passed a $600 million border security bill in August that provided 1,000 more Border Patrol officers but only 250 CBP agents, who were deployed along the southern border.

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