Johnson: DHS Will Add Customs Pre-Clearance Locations

U.S. secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson used an analogy from American football to explain why his department will open new customs pre-clearance facilities at foreign airports to screen against potential terrorists. “Any opportunity I have to defend the end zone from the 50 [yard line] and not just my one-yard line, I will take,” Johnson said October 14 in a speech to the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Johnson, the former Department of Defense general counsel who was sworn in to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last December, said counter-terrorism remains the “cornerstone” of the department’s mission, just as it was in 2002 when Congress passed legislation that created the DHS in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. The $60 billion department is crafted from 22 separate agencies, including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The DHS plans to enter into negotiations with foreign airport authorities next year to open an unspecified number of customs pre-clearance operations at new locations. On its website, the department has posted a 15-page “Preclearance Expansion” document containing guidance for authorities interested in applying for a U.S. customs facility. They are instructed to submit letters of interest to the CBP by November 30.

By screening people early in the travel cycle, the CBP believes it can better protect against high-risk passengers seeking entry to the U.S. and also help relieve long customs lines at U.S. arrival airports. The agency reports operating 15 customs pre-clearance facilities, primarily at airports in Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean. U.S. airline industry groups vigorously opposed the facility it opened most recently—at Abu Dhabi International Airport in the UAE. They argued that the facility would mainly benefit Abu Dhabi-owned Etihad Airways; however, Congress allowed it to open.

Speaking to the Army audience, Johnson said the DHS will continue opening new customs pre-clearance facilities. “In reaction to the general terrorist threat coming from overseas, in July we began a series of measures to ramp up our aviation security and last-point-of-departure airports overseas with flights directly into the United States,” he said. “We’ve enhanced aviation security in those airports; we’ve added airports to that list—something I directed over the last several months. We’re building more pre-clearance capability at last-point-of-departure airports. We’re placing [customs operations] forward to screen people before they get on the airplane, so that we can push out our homeland security beyond the borders.”

Johnson said the DHS is aware that extremists from the U.S. as well as from other countries may be traveling to the Middle East “to take up the fight in Syria” and returning to their home countries, where they present a terrorism risk. The list includes countries from which travelers are not required to obtain a visa to enter the U.S. “We’re evaluating what more we can obtain by way of information from and about individuals that come from visa-waiver countries,” he said. “We’re focused on and we’re tracking so-called foreign fighters.”