United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2003-06-16 monographic deposited born digital 19 p. GA 1.13:GAO-03-902T https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-902T P0b002ee18038c33e f:d03902t DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-23 GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-902T machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-902T GAO-03-902T Facility security Identification cards Identity verification Inspection National preparedness Strategic planning Testimony A07198 Balancing our nation's security and commercial needs is a longstanding issue that is especially important in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that changed the nation's security environment. Addressing this challenge now falls principally to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its Border and Transportation Security directorate. Within this directorate, responsibility has been assigned primarily to the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (BCBP). BCBP consists of the inspections component of the former U.S. Customs Service; the Border Patrol and Inspections component of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, and a former component of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Achieving the balance between security and commercial needs is greatly affected by BCBP's commercial and border and immigration control workload. Regarding commercial workload, in fiscal year 2002, the former U.S. Customs Services processed 24.9 million trade import entries valued at over $1.1 trillion and collected $23.8 billion in duties and fees; it also processed about 6 million cargo containers arriving at U.S. sea ports. While the cargo workload has stabilized somewhat as a result of the recent global economic slowdown, it is likely to begin growing again, when an economic recovery is underway at some point in the future, thus exacerbating the challenges BCBP faces. Regarding border and immigration control workload, in fiscal year 2002, inspectors at over 300 ports of entry inspected nearly 450 million travelers while the Border Patrol apprehended nearly 960,000 aliens trying to enter the U.S. illegally between the ports of entry. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-902T/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-902T.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-902T/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-902T.pdf GAO-03-902T https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-902T Testimony GAO-03-902T; Homeland Security: Challenges Facing the Department of Homeland Security in Balancing its Border Security and Trade Facilitation Missions; Facility security Identification cards Identity verification Inspection National preparedness Strategic planning Public Law 103-183