Robert Bonner

hen Congress was debating creation of the Homeland Security Department, Robert Bonner strongly endorsed the notion of merging duplicative functions of the Customs Service, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Border Patrol.

"The authority to streamline overlapping border functions is absolutely essential to achieving greater efficiency and effectiveness," he said during an August 2002 speech before the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. "It's not enough for all organizations with border responsibilities to simply be moved into the new department. There must be authority to consolidate where that is appropriate."

Now, the former commissioner of the Customs Service has his wish. As chief of the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, Bonner will supervise nearly 30,000 employees creating a unified inspection force to examine people and goods moving across borders and through ports of entry.

Bonner knows full well the daunting challenges of securing America's ports and borders. During a January 2002 speech before CSIS, he said, "The stakes are high. One can only imagine the devastation of a small nuclear explosion at one of our seaports."

Bonner graduated from the University of Maryland and earned a law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center. He served as a U.S. attorney for the Central California District, as a U.S. district judge and as administrator of the Drug Enforcement Agency during the first Bush administration.