Free Essay on Customs and Border Protection Operations

CBP is among the world's largest organizations in law enforcement, charged with protecting the United States border from terrorists and their weapons. They also facilitate legal international trade and travel and enforce U.S laws and regulations. CBP became the first entity to provide full-service at the border globally. Their mission statement defines their role as safeguarding the U.S border, thereby shielding the citizens from imminent danger, while promoting international economic competitiveness through trade. The CBP vision is to function as the leading law enforcement agency in ensuring safety and security to promote prosperity.

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The organization operates on three major core values namely vigilance, service, and integrity. By being vigilant, CBP guarantees that the citizens are safe at all times (States & Gambler, 2012). They continuously watch the border to detect, prevent, and to thwart any national threats. They provide service to the country through their dedication to defending the country and uphold the American constitution. Among these values, their main cornerstone is serving with integrity. They are governed by high ethical and moral standards, a function that brings both personal and organizational honor.

The CBP Office of Field Operations (OFO) has been granted full authority by the U.S Congress to conduct border search operations (States & Gambler, 2012). The officers have the power to stop, examine, and question any individual or mode of transport entering or leaving the country, and placing guilty parties under arrest for violating federal law. The port personnel is the people who enforce import, export, and immigration policies. Other than preventing terrorism, they also conduct agricultural inspections to protect the country from carriers of animal, plants, and pest diseases that may affect the countrys crops, animals, and the environment.

Four strategic goals guided the group to work in the year 2015. These include: to counter terrorism and crime on a national level, advance through border security and management, enhancing economic effectiveness, and promoting integration and integrity. They collaborated with Central America and Caribbean countries to secure threats caused by terrorists, criminal organizations, weapons, narcotic, and human trafficking. The agency created the Central America Advisory Support and Training model whose purpose was to grow land interdiction units in Central America, meant for use in a global framework. This collaboration between CBP and other nations strives to put the effort in technical assistance, capacity building, and training to fight terrorism, improve security at the border, and establish a framework for expanded capacity.

They work with a minimum annual budget of 20 billion US dollars and have close to 60, 000 employees. The organization is led by the commissioner, deputy commissioner, and has 14 functioning bodies. These include Office of Air Marine, Office of Field Operations, Office of Border Patrol, International Affairs, and Internal Affairs. Others include Administration, Intelligence, Human Resources, Training and Development, and Congressional Affairs among others.

CBP boasts of having the largest functioning Law Enforcement Canine Program globally. They have over 1200 teams working all over the country. The majority of their resources are situated along the border, covering areas such as Brownsville, Texas, California, and San Diego. These teams are also assigned to major ports of entry and at the clearance stations. The Canine Officers are responsible for running the program and use specially trained dogs that detect narcotic substances, hidden humans in human trafficking, and smuggled products. Some are also trained in quelling the terrorist threat by being bomb sniffers.

According to their performance report, the organization has met five of its nine goals planned for the year. These include apprehending people and interdiction effectiveness at the border, reduction in the smuggling of weapons and money, and compliance with international trade laws. However, this does not deter them from staying fully committed to the cause of service t the country and strive to have better results in 2016.

Reference

The United States, & Gambler, R. (2012). Border Patrol: Key Elements of the new strategic plan not yet in place to inform border security status and resource needs: report of congressional requesters. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govt. Accountability Office.