Galveston Port to Enter Program for extra Immagration Agents

[ssb]

By CHACOUR KOOP The Galveston Daily News:

 

In an effort to unload cruise ships faster and move cargo quicker during busy seasons, the Port of Galveston is entering a U.S. Customs and Border Protection program that allows businesses to request additional officers.

Under the program, tenants at the landlord port can pay for extra officers or overtime outside of normal business hours. The idea is to reduce wait time and cargo backups during times of high demand.

“It’s a nice service to have in the case of an emergency or a desire to expedite or get cargo off the port after hours,” Port Director Michael Mierzwa said.

In 2014, U.S. Customs and Border Protection started offering the public-private program because record increases in passenger and cargo nationwide outpaced funding.

Although the service will be available to all port customers, Del Monte Fresh Produce Co., 1401 Harborside Drive, and Royal Caribbean Cruises already have shown interest in the program, Mierzwa said.

Royal Caribbean asked the port to enter the program to help disembark passengers from Liberty of the Seas, the largest cruise ship to sail from the island, Mierzwa said. The cruise company can ask for additional officers when a ship has a high percentage of non-U.S. passengers, who take longer to pass through customs. During the holiday season, up to 70 percent of passengers on some cruises are from other countries. The company may also use more officers if the ship returns to port late, and needs to offload passengers quicker to prepare for the next cruise, Mierzwa said.

For Del Monte, semi-trucks distributing cargo from the port are required to drive through a customs checkpoint, which includes a radiation monitor. The monitor tests for smuggled nuclear materials, and customs officers must monitor the machine. Previously, the company has asked for officers to stay past normal business hours, even offering to pay for the service, when the fruit season ramps up.

The program will not add expenses to the port. The port will pay for the additional officers at the request of customers and be reimbursed by the tenants that use the service.

Contact reporter Chacour Koop at 409-683-5241 or chacour.koop@galvnews.com.

[mistshar]

Thank you for keeping us informed with news in Galveston. It is very helpful. That is a very interesting article.

[ssb]

Thank you for keeping us informed with news in Galveston. It is very helpful. That is a very interesting article.

 

You are welcome.

 

But, if it was available in 2014,

Royal should have pushed for it then.

RCL could have forced Galveston to join the program, without all the disembarkation issues over the last two years.

 

Now that terminal improvements are completed,

and reviews on disembarkation are good,

the decision to request help,

will still be on Royal shoulders only in circumstantial situations.

We shall see how disembarkation's good reviews hold up from here!

 

Royal can still dump passengers, without crowd control inside ship,

onto terminal for baggage claim and then immigration !

Thus causing back up in immigration! It's not fair to immigration agents.

 

Hope program will not be like present damage control procedures.

Immigration now is just be moving agents over from Carnival terminal,

ONLY AFTER Carnival disembarkation is complete.

 

Agents cannot just appear during a crisis!

RCL needs to step up and provide agents in advance!

I know RCL in advance with knowledge of circumstantial cruises will do it ,

but they should just provide funding for additional agent all the time!

Then they will regain all these cruisers that say never again RCL and Galveston!

 

With new terminal completed and new program it will be better !

Edited August 18, 2016 by ssb