Home Media Center News Releases

Washington, D.C. -- With more than 470 million land, sea and air passengers expected to travel to and from the United States this year, it is imperative that the men and women of the Customs Service have the resources, technology and training they need to perform their vital border control tasks effectively, their union president said today.

"A drug interdiction effort for the 21" century depends on 21' century equipment and increased staffing levels," President Robert M. Tobias of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said. NTEU represents some 13,000 Customs employees, and more than 155,000 federal employees overall in 21 agencies and. departments.

Tobias made the comments in advance of his testimony scheduled tomorrow before the oversight subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee looking at Customs' passenger inspection policies.

He addressed one of the complaints that led to the hearing??that Customs uses improper techniques to identify travelers for more detailed searches. "NTEU and Customs Service employees unequivocally condemn the use of discriminatory factors as a basis for selecting passengers" for either secondary inspection or additional search techniques, he said.

The union president pointed to substantial staffing shortages at many border points, along with "a profound lack of technology and information?gathering equipment to adequately process travelers."

Tobias said the most important step Customs can take, along with reiterating its firm policy against any kind of discrimination in passenger search selection, is to provide "regular training opportunities" for Customs enforcement personnel.

Inspectors at every U.S. port of entry, who are bound to follow the agency's nationwide policies and procedures, are taught these procedures in their initial training, Tobias said. But, he added, "these policies must be reiterated and relearned so that inspectors who may not perform personal searches regularly are aware of every nuance, change in policy or added procedure."

He cited as a serious problem "the lack of follow?up training" for inspectors after several years in the field. Such training, he said, would provide inspection personnel with an opportunity "to comment on the policies and procedures," as well as allowing the agency to reinforce both the law and its non?discrimination policies on personal searches.

Tobias also pointed out that "there is no typical drug smuggler or a typical way to smuggle drugs." Often, drugs are wrapped and ingested by couriers. In 1998, the NTEU president said, Customs seized more than 2 %a tons of illegal narcotics "on and in the bodies of drug smugglers."