Robert Bonner

So the U.S. Customs Service faces a huge dilemma: How do we maintain security, without choking off the flow of cross-border trade? We do it by being smarter. We do it by working closely with other governments. And we do it by partnering with private industry.

It is time to think anew about how we view our borders. In my view, the only way to ensure that national security demands are met, and not disrupt the flow of global trade, is to ease the pressure at the physical border itself.

The border should not be the nation's first and only line of defense against international terrorists or drug smugglers. Quite the contrary, it should be the nation's last line of defense, reserved for those high-risk persons, cargo, and vehicles we know we must inspect thoroughly to make sure that terrorist weapons and other contraband, including illegal drugs, do not enter the country. All others, the low risks, should move more freely across the border with far fewer inspections.

This is a smarter border, a border that allows legitimate and secure trade to flow unimpeded, a border that is the fast lane for the honest and the end of the road for the dishonest.

-May 6, 2002
Address to the Border Trade Alliance.