Thursday, June 25, 2009 - San Diego - Paul M. Morris, a career federal law enforcement officer with over 20 years experience in designing and managing programs related to border processing of international travelers, was formally sworn into office this afternoon as U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s new field operations director in San Diego. Morris, 53, succeeds Gurdit Dhillon, who retired from the federal government in January after almost 38 years service.
Morris was formally posted to his new position during a well-attended change of command ceremony on board the USS Midway Museum on this afternoon. Family, friends, law enforcement colleagues from local, state and federal agencies, and area dignitaries watched Morris recite the oath of office during the 45-minute ceremony on the flight deck of the floating museum.
He is the first CBP field director in San Diego to participate in a formal change of command ceremony. CBP field operations recently adopted formal change of command ceremonies as another way to unify the workforce and highlight the agency mission.
Morris brings to the key San Diego position in-depth experience in overseeing a variety of major national passenger processing programs and policies in support of such initiatives as the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative and various trusted traveler programs.
Prior to his new assignment, Morris served at CBP headquarters in Washington D.C. as acting deputy assistant commissioner in the office of field operations, responsible for oversight of programs and operations for 327 ports of entry and 20 major field offices nationwide.
He also provided leadership to CBP officers stationed at 58 of the largest foreign ports of entry where cargo bound for the U.S. received security pre-screening as well as 15 passenger processing pre-clearance stations in Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean.
Morris earlier served as executive director of CBP’s admissibility and passenger programs where he managed passenger related policy and programs for all land, air, sea and pre-clearance ports of entry. He oversaw implementation of major travel and trade initiatives such as WHTI, the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, Model Ports, Global Entry, and the Advanced Passenger Information System Quick Query.
Morris, who began his new duties late last month, will provide management oversight for all passenger and cargo operations at the busy land border ports of entry on the California/Mexico border.
The San Diego field office manages the work of over 1,500 front-line federal officers at border stations in San Ysidro, Otay Mesa, Tecate, Calexico, and Andrade as well as the federal inspection stations at the San Diego seaport and international airports. The ports performed over 74 million inspections of people, seized over 240,000 pounds of illegal narcotics and apprehended over 47,000 immigration violators during the last fiscal year.
While mindful of the agency’s important border security mission, Morris said he will continue to support operations that have proved successful for the field office while striking a working balance between facilitation of legitimate trade and travelers and the need for strong enforcement.
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.
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