U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Tuesday framed its mission as essential to the public, in a message arguing it has played a critical role in shaping the U.S.’s 250 years of history.
CBP operates under the Department of Homeland Security and includes divisions such as Border Patrol. The department has weathered some intense criticism over the past year, from both sides of the aisle, over its handling of protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement in deep blue hubs such as Chicago and Minneapolis, leading officials to admit “some missteps” were made.
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This week, CBP sought to emphasize the agency’s positives, pointing to its extensive operations that have collected revenues and patrolled U.S. borders and shores for decades. On a typical day in 2026, federal officers process over 1 million travelers and enable $10 billion in imported goods, the agency wrote Tuesday, centuries after the first revenue collectors raked in millions that funded some of the U.S.’s most important early projects, including the Louisiana Purchase.
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“What would start as just a handful of small boats trying to collect revenues for a new nation, today has blossomed into a more than 67,000-person agency responsible not just for collecting revenues but protecting America from the air, land, and sea as one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the world,” the agency wrote, citing 9/11 as the key modern event that propelled CBP to become one of the world’s “premier” law enforcement agencies. “It’s a law enforcement agency that has used the experiences of nearly 250 years to build it to what it is today.”
“Going back 250 years ago, the work we do today would have been unrecognizable to the customs officers at America’s earliest ports of entry,” Executive Assistant Commissioner Diane Sabatino, in charge of CBP’s Office of Field Operations, said. “The volume of trade, the training, the technology, the scale of travel, the complexity of the threats we face, have changed beyond anything they could have imagined. We now have high-tech targeting systems. We have facial biometrics. We have mobile applications. We have canine teams. We have non-intrusive inspection systems. But one thing has remained constant for 250 years: our dedicated frontline personnel and our ability to adapt.”
CBP said it played a pivotal role in ending the Atlantic slave trade back in the early 1800s. In the years since, it has targeted modern-day slavery, including sex traffickers and forced human labor, according to the agency.
It particularly noted changes in its approach to enforcing immigration law at the borders under President Donald Trump in recent months, referencing strict policies on deportation and illegal immigrants that have sparked outrage from Democrats. Between the ports of entry and at the southern border, Border Patrol saw a 95% drop in encounters compared to 2024, according to the government, a statistic it said “didn’t happen by accident.”
“We spent years doing care and custody and not doing what we were trained to do: protect the border,” Abelino Reyna, the deputy executive director for Border Patrol’s Law Enforcement Operations Directorate, said. “That changed in January 2025, and morale is up, and encounters are down drastically, because we are out there enforcing immigration laws.”
“Historically, we apprehended illegal aliens, set them up for removal proceedings, and that’s it,” she said. “They go back, and of course, they do it again. Now, we’re big on enforcing immigration laws and prosecuting these individuals for their illegal entry.”
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CBP’s message comes as it continues to face questions, particularly from the Left, over its role and tactics used in targeting illegal immigrants. Congressional Democrats sought to defund the agency in an intense battle in Washington earlier this year, prompting concerns from Republicans that the country’s borders would be left vulnerable.
“At the end, Republicans will have helped ensure that America’s borders are secure and prevented Democrats from defunding these important agencies,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said in April.
