CBP's Office of Field Operations Deputy Says UCP Coming to Air Cargo
Unified Cargo Processing, which had cut wait times at the 13 ports where it is in effect by up to 75 percent before the migration crisis, is going to expand to air cargo, according to John Wagner, deputy executive assistant commissioner for CBP. It is going to launch at the Mesa, Arizona, airport first, and then expand to Texas, he told the audience at the Wilson Center's June 20 conference on how to build a competitive U.S.-Mexico border.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
Wagner said the agency is also looking to continue to improve efficiencies in inspecting cargo coming by truck. He said they're testing low-energy X-ray machines that could take images of truck cabs while high-energy machines scan the trailers. "Our ambition is to really build these drive-through systems," he said.
Wagner said CBP is finally getting on top of staffing challenges, through fast-tracking some applications and by offering substantial retention bonuses in hard-to-staff locations such as Arizona ports of entry; Calexico, California; San Francisco; and a couple of the larger airports. He said that while historically CBP was only able to hire about 300 more officers annually than it loses to attrition, this year it should be 1,000 to 1,300 over attrition.