Gypsy Jan - 11-13-2012 at 02:31 PM
From The San Diego Union Tribune
By Sandra Dibble
Pete Flores' new job is truly a cross-border endeavor.
"The veteran of federal law enforcement took over this month as director of the San Diego Field Office for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an
agency within the Department of Homeland Security. That means he oversees land and cargo operations at San Diego's international seaport, airports and
four land ports of entry along the California-Mexico border.
Flores has lived in the border area for much of his life. Born and raised in El Centro, his father was a migrant field laborer who later worked for
U.S. Gypsum. Flores was studying criminal justice administration at San Diego State University in 1988 when he began working for what was then known
as the U.S. Customs Service. He stayed on, steadily rising through the ranks.
Most recently, he served as assistant director in charge of border security for Customs and Border Protection's San Diego Field Office, which covers
San Diego and Imperial counties.
Q: What are the issues that now keep you up at night?
A: The majority of our travelers are compliant travelers. It's that small percentage who are not that keeps me up at night. Whether that's a potential
link to a narco-trafficking group, an alien smuggling group, a link to a potential terrorist event or instruments thereof. Those are the types of
things that keep me up at night.
Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges for the San Diego Field Office?
A: Infrastructure is one of the premiere challenges for me today. We are locked in facilities built 15, 20 years ago. In this last fiscal year (2012),
we processed over 64 million people in this field office, and these ports of entry just weren't built to handle that traffic. At San Ysidro, we see
about 35,000 to 40,000 vehicles a day coming through and an additional 24,000 to 27,000 pedestrians.
Q: Your job is to ensure both efficiency and security at ports of entry. Do you have a vision for how to achieve that?
A: One of our biggest efficiency projects is redesigning the San Ysidro port of entry. The single focus in importance here is getting this done,
completed, having the ability to expand our footprint and infrastructure, getting the technology in place. Some of the steps we've taken as far as
efficiencies is the lane segmentation - SENTRI, Ready Lane, general traffic. Getting advanced information ... having pre-primary enforcement such as
canine roving, X-ray equipment, those help expedite processing.
Q: Congress approved the $583 million expansion and reconstruction of the San Ysidro port, but it has only funded $292 million for the first phase.
With federal money so hard to come by, what do you think of paying for border infrastructure projects through public-private partnerships?
A: I think that's an absolutely fabulous idea; it will expedite the process of getting things done. The federal government just doesn't have the
funding to build everything that we need, and we see that because of what our facilities look like.
Q: Pedestrians entering the United States at the San Ysidro border crossing have been suffering inordinately long waits during peak periods, as long
as four hours on weekends. You have plans by mid-February to install a pedestrian Ready Lane at San Ysidro similar to one already operating at Otay
Mesa, where users are able to swipe documents such as a border-crossing card, an enhanced driver's license and a U.S. passport through a reader. Has
this been successful?
A: [At Otay] it has quickened the process for those individuals using the Ready Lane. It gives travelers the ability to present their document at a
kiosk; the information is presented to the officer prior to their arrival at the booth. We're cutting seconds off of each traveler.
Q: Complaints about the behavior of some Customs and Border Protection officers have ranged from rudeness of inspectors on the line to more serious
forms of abuse. For example, the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating a May 2010 incident involving Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, an unauthorized
immigrant who died after being beaten and tased by the agency's officers at the San Ysidro port. What is your agency doing to address these
allegations?
A: We start with the academies we put them through. We are revamping our training all the time, the quality of individuals we are getting back has
increased. ... We're always looking to see what policies are and how they need to be changed - at the national level, at my level and at the port
level.
There's no doubt that we're having from time to time an officer who is having a bad day, maybe he'll take it out a little bit on travelers that are
coming through. The traveler has the option to then speak to a supervisor. We're fortunate that with our new facilities, we'll have a wider scope to
be able to monitor activity at the port, [with equipment] such as cameras.
Q: You grew up in the border region. What was your own first experience crossing the border?
A: I remember going with my dad across the border [to Mexico] when I was a little one to get haircuts. He'd get a haircut, I'd get a haircut, and we'd
walk back across.
Q: After spending so many years working on border-crossing issues, what kinds of incidents have surprised you?
A: One time we seized some drunken parrots. They'd been given tequila to keep them quiet and were hidden in a vehicle's door panels. Another time, I
opened a glove compartment and staring at me was the face of someone who was being smuggled in."