Washington, D.C. – This week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) deployed another team of CBP officers and Border Patrol agents to Iraq and the surrounding region in an effort to help secure Iraq’s borders. The CBP team, deployed prior to the Iraqi national elections, will support current border security efforts. The support and additional training of Iraqi border police will continue beyond the elections. The focus is to keep saboteurs, terrorists and armaments from crossing into or out of Iraq.
“U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and Border Patrol agents are fighting the war on terror, and we’ve taken it to the borders of Iraq. Our people are on a vital mission to train Iraqis to protect their own borders and build Iraqi institutions that will safeguard the new freedoms and democratic principles being established there. There is no more important mission,” said Commissioner Bonner.
This latest effort by CBP is an enhancement to the already ongoing commitment to develop and help institutionalize Iraq’s border security strategy. The CBP team began training Iraqis at the Jordanian International Police Training Center (JIPTC) in Amman, Jordan in August 2004. Since that time, over 2100 Iraqi border control officers have been trained. The training began with basic classroom instruction and progressed to field exercises. The courses taught include border security tactics, human rights, defensive tactics training, weapons training, vehicle searches, as well as basic customs and immigration activities. The Iraqi officials CBP trained are now putting these skills to use at their country’s ports of entry.
