CBP grappling with ‘unprecedented crisis’

The deployment of Customs and Border Protection officers to the U.S. southern border with Mexico has caused “real resource challenges,” says Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan. Only 16 days into the job as acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner, Mark Morgan admits that he’s still facing “a bit of learning curve,” but vowed that the agency will continue to work with the trade in a spirit of “transparency, communication and collaboration.” “We can’t afford to lose your trust,” Morgan (pictured above) told the roughly 1,200 people in attendance at the CBP Trade Symposium in Chicago Tuesday. President Donald Trump picked Morgan to serve as acting CBP commissioner shortly after John P. Sanders announced his resignation from the post. Sanders served as acting CBP commissioner for two and a half months before departing the agency on July 5. Morgan spent most of his prior career in federal law enforcement, including working as an FBI analyst and most recently serving as acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At the trade symposium, he told the attendees that CBP is still grappling with the ongoing migrant crisis along the U.S. southern border with Mexico. Morgan said the agency is “dealing with an unprecedented crisis.” He acknowledged that the initial deployment of 545 CBP officers to the southern border in April from trade processing duties to assist Border Patrol with immigration duties “led to increased wait times. … We know this is a big deal,” he said. Another 300 CBP officers from other ports around the country also were deployed to the southern border to relieve those officers. As many as 730 CBP officers have assisted with processing arriving migrants. The deployment resulted in traffic lane closures and mile-long-plus backups of trucks waiting to enter the U.S. at the southern border. By mid-May, those wait times began to diminish, but are still on average about 25 minutes, Morgan said. “We have real resource challenges,” Morgan told the trade symposium attendees. “We need to make sure we tell you what’s going on and why.” He added that CBP will continue to “share as much information as we can and be as candid as possible.” Meanwhile, U.S. import volumes continue to grow. In 2018, the agency processed $2.6 trillion in imports, including 28 million inbound ocean containers and 625 million small package shipments, and collected about $52 billion in taxes, duties and fees, Morgan said.