# CBP **U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)** is the largest federal law-enforcement agency — roughly 60,000 personnel — and a component of the [[Department of Homeland Security]] created in the 2003 post-9/11 reorganization. It controls the borders and the ports of entry through three operational arms: the **U.S. Border Patrol** (enforcement between ports), the **Office of Field Operations** (inspections at the ~330 air, land, and sea ports of entry), and **Air and Marine Operations** (aerial and maritime interdiction). CBP is the front end of the immigration-enforcement system — interdiction, apprehension, and processing at and near the border — while [[ICE]] handles interior enforcement and removal and [[USCIS]] handles the benefits side. For the KB, CBP is the **operational tip of the border-security and mass-enforcement agenda**. Its staffing levels, detention and processing capacity, use-of-force practices, and the surveillance-technology buildout along the southern border are where the administration's immigration ambitions become physical reality — and where the legal and humanitarian conflicts (family separation, expedited removal, conditions in custody, deaths during enforcement) most often surface. ## Leadership (2025–) **Rodney Scott** — a career Border Patrol official who served as Chief of the Border Patrol in the first Trump administration — was installed as CBP Commissioner. A hardline enforcement figure closely aligned with the [[Stephen Miller]] immigration agenda, Scott's return signaled a maximalist posture: aggressive interdiction, expanded barrier construction, and a tighter integration of CBP with the broader deportation drive. The Border Patrol's public face in the interior surges of 2025–26 was not Scott but [[Gregory Bovino]]. Bovino was the El Centro sector chief whom [[Kristi Noem]] styled "commander-at-large." He ran the Los Angeles, Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans and Minneapolis operations and reported to Noem outside the normal chain of command. He was pulled out of Minneapolis in January 2026 and retired in March 2026 while under a CBP misconduct inquiry, which he blames on Scott. ## Operational components - **U.S. Border Patrol** — the uniformed enforcement arm between ports of entry; ~19,000 agents and a politically powerful union. - **Office of Field Operations (OFO)** — officers inspecting people and cargo at ports of entry. - **Air and Marine Operations (AMO)** — aircraft and vessels for interdiction and surveillance. - **Trade and customs functions** — duty collection and cargo security, often overshadowed by the immigration mission but central to the tariff-era economy. ## The capture lens CBP scales up directly with the second-term immigration agenda. The patterns the KB tracks: - **Enforcement surge** — expanded apprehensions, expedited removal, and interior-adjacent operations. - **Barrier and surveillance buildout** — wall construction and the deployment of towers, sensors, drones, and biometric systems. - **Use-of-force and custody scrutiny** — incidents, deaths, and detention-conditions controversies. - **Union politics** — the Border Patrol union as a political actor aligned with the enforcement agenda. ## See Also - [[ICE]] - [[USCIS]] - [[Gregory Bovino]] - [[Rodney Scott]] - [[Department of Homeland Security]] - [[Stephen Miller]] - [[Federal Agencies]]