U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) staff of 60,000 employees was recently selected as the 2021 Homeland Security Today’s Person of the Year for its ability to maintain national security amid challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and humanitarian crises.
The award, presented by the Government Technology and Services Coalition (GTSC), was given on Dec. 15 during a gala celebrating the coalition’s 10th anniversary, a CBP press release said.
“I want to offer my sincere thanks to Homeland Security Today for recognizing us with this prestigious award,” Executive Assistant Commissioner for Enterprise Services Benjamine Huffman said, according to the release. “The men and women of CBP work tirelessly each day to ensure the safety of our borders and facilitate legitimate trade and travel throughout the worst pandemic in recent history, and it is humbling that Homeland Security Today sees and appreciates them.”
Homeland Security Today, an independent, non-profit news agency under GTSC, presents the award annually to people “who serve the homeland security mission in an exemplary fashion, tangibly improving the nation’s prevention, protection, mitigation, and response capacity to make America safer,” the release said.
“The workforce of more than 60,000 has steadfastly focused on [their] mission under the most arduous of conditions, during a time of humanitarian crises and natural disasters as well as a pandemic that has killed dozens of CBP employees,” a report by National Cyber Security News said.
CBP is the nation’s largest law enforcement agency and is responsible for protecting the country’s borders, the release said. In 2021, the agency “adjusted workforce postures and health protocols to protect the public at ports of entry, while adapting to irregular migration patterns and rescuing migrants left in dangerous situations by smugglers along the border.”
“Simultaneously CBP is helping the country rebound economically from the impacts of the ongoing pandemic through CBP’s facilitation of lawful trade and travel at ports of entry, and preventing dangerous and counterfeit goods from getting into the country,” the release said.
