U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)

2011-02-09 09:30:48

Customs and Border Protection is the federal agency within the Border and Transportation Security Directorate (BTS) responsible for law enforcement and inspections along U.S. borders. It operates under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). CBP employs almost 40,000 men and women in protecting the country’s borders, intercepting illegal drugs and other contraband, and enforcing trade and immigration laws at the border.
Customs and Border Protection was created as a result of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which dissolved the Immigration and Naturalization Service (Department of Justice), the U.S. Customs Service (Department of the Treasury), and the Agricultural Quarantine and Inspection program (Department of Agriculture), and transferred security-related functions to the newly created DHS. The U.S. Border Patrol was merged into the Customs and Border Protection, and all border-related functions were then coordinated. An early goal of the Customs and Border Protection was to create “One Face at the Border,” with former customs, INS, and agricultural inspectors all working in a single agency under a unified chain of command.