Farm Compliance

Chicago, Illinois - United States Customs and Border Protection’s Chicago field office yesterday hosted a conference with officials from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, an important step toward improved communication and information sharing to help strengthen the CBP Agriculture operation.

David Murphy, director of field operations in Chicago, and Vic Harabin, eastern regional director for APHIS, provided opening remarks. In attendance were representatives from APHIS and CBP officials who gave presentations, shared viewpoints and discussed operational strategies that will impact future agency operations.

The CBP Agriculture mission includes protecting the United States

On a typical day CBP Agricultural Specialists seize 1, 145 prohibited meat products, plant materials, or animal products including 147 agricultural pests at ports of entry.

“Meetings such as these, reinforce, reinvigorate and reestablish the needed linkage and open dialog to ensure the overall success of the agricultural mission,” Murphy said. “By continuing to build our partnerships, networking and communications, we continue down the path of improvement, mutual understanding and success.”

The ongoing critical agriculture mission will benefit significantly due to these joint CBP/APHIS stakeholders meetings that are taking place at different CBP locations nationwide. This important conference is the result of an outreach and communication action plan adopted by both agencies in June 2007.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.