Ridge projects unity at the border

Ridge projects unity at the border    The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection has recruited its first group of officers who will be cross-trained this fall to provide immigration, customs and agricultural processing for travelers entering the country at land, sea and air ports, Homeland Security Secretary Thomas Ridge said.
   In an address at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank Tuesday, Ridge said the training initiative is designed to improve security and efficiency at border crossings by consolidating inspection functions in a single officer. The move is part of the department's larger effort to streamline security efforts since the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, Customs Service and Agriculture Department inspection service were integrated within the new department earlier this year.
   'The disadvantage there was that each inspector was trained for only one specific area. The other two issues were somebody else’s problem,' Ridge said in a speech posted on the AEI Web site. 'The three separate faces of government and the many inefficiencies that go with it will soon be gone. We will have one face in one uniform — a single officer trained for primary inspection as well as how to determine who needs to go through secondary inspections.'
   The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection has assumed the immigration and agriculture inspection responsibilities and Customs officials for months have spoken of a one-face-at-the-border approach for clearing cargo.
   Ridge also announced a plan to increase the number of armed federal law enforcement officers available to protect passenger aircraft, many of which carry cargo in their holds, during times of increased terrorist threat by quickly shifting up to 5,000 officers from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE) to serve as air marshals.
   The Washington Post reported that Ridge notified Congress that the Federal Air Marshall Service would move to BICE from the Transportation Security Administration. The reorganization would also move the Transportation Security Administration's explosives canine unit to BICE.