First, I would like to take a moment to thank FLETC for its assistance in building this great new facility. On behalf of Customs and Border Protection, I want to tell you that we are very grateful for your investment.

When the project began, it was intended to service three different departments of government - Justice, Treasury, and Agriculture. Now, the users of the facility are centralized in one new agency in a department, the new Department of Homeland Security.

With the unification and integration of customs, immigration, and agriculture inspectors, and the Border Patrol, into CBP, CBP is now the largest consumer of FLETC services. And FLETC, like CBP, is part of the Department of Homeland Security and the Border and Transportation Security Directorate of the Department.

You can see uniformed representatives from customs, immigration, agriculture, and the Border Patrol seated right here next to me this afternoon. To them, and to all CBP employees here today as we formally dedicate this new training facility, I say welcome to this great new agency!

FLETC has provided incredible support in accommodating our huge increases in the number of students being trained here since 9/11. For the customs basic inspector class, we are now bringing about 5 times as many students as we used to bring. And the immigration officer basic training class is bringing two or three times as many students. FLETC has found the space for those students, and again, on behalf of Customs and Border Protection, I want to tell you that we are very grateful for that.

As Commissioner, I look forward to CBP maintaining a productive, successful relationship with FLETC - so that together, we can ensure that the men and women of CBP are united in mission, well equipped, and well trained for the extraordinarily important priority mission they face.

That priority mission is preventing terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the United States. That is the priority mission of CBP's Field Operations at the ports of entry and CBP's Border Patrol. It is the priority mission of the entire agency.

Yet the men and women of CBP must also be well equipped to carry out the traditional missions of the predecessor agencies that make up CBP. Those traditional missions include apprehending individuals wanted for crimes or who are attempting to enter the United States illegally; identifying and interdicting illegal drugs and other contraband and those who smuggle them; determining admissibility and identifying fraudulent entry documents; protecting our agricultural and economic interests from harmful pests and diseases; protecting American businesses from theft of their intellectual property; regulating and facilitating international trade; collecting import duties; and enforcing U.S. trade and immigration laws, and indeed, all the laws of the United States at our borders.

This mock training POE will help better prepare the men and women of CBP for both the priority and traditional missions they will face. It is, as you can see, a replica of a typical POE - with at least one notable exception. Unlike other CBP facilities, the Glynco POE replicates a land border, airport, and seaport POE, all in one facility. It also has a Border Patrol station designed for Border Patrol agents in training. The whole complex will permit joint and shared training exercises for all the component parts of CBP. This POE training facility even has a RAIC office. So it will help us maintain and strengthen the links between the frontline uniformed officers and agents of CBP and the criminal investigators of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

This facility will provide CBP inspectors and Border Patrol agents with "real life" experiences that will be extraordinarily useful in training. Students will be able to get hands on use of all the tools they need - including our TECS, IBIS, and IDENT databases, and our detection equipment, such as Mobile VACIS, radiation detectors, fiber-optic scopes, and portal radiation monitors, among others.

This kind of practical experience is invaluable, and is certain to help better train CBP inspection officers and Border Patrol agents for their missions.

So this facility is a wonderful achievement, an achievement that will contribute to the security of our country. I'd like to conclude my remarks today by paying special recognition to an individual who has helped make this facility a reality.

Wes Schiwitz is the first Port Director for this new facility, and rightly so. I first met Wes about five or six months ago, when this POE was a work in progress. Wes showed me around, and his enthusiasm for the project was contagious. And I was as excited about it as Wes! Wes put a tremendous amount of work and time into making the Glynco POE such a successful project. So, Wes, on behalf of all of us here today - on behalf of CBP - it gives me great pleasure to present you with this special plaque in recognition of your extraordinary individual efforts to make the Glynco training POE a reality. Congratulations and thanks for an excellent job.