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FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

SP Program Strategic Plan

FY 2009 - 2013

Message from the Deputy Commissioner

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), an agency within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is responsible for managing and securing our Nation’s borders both at and between the ports of entry while facilitating legal trade and travel. To protect America from harm, CBP must detect and remove the goods and people that present a potential risk to security from the legitimate annual flow of over 25 million cargo containers, 100 million conveyances, and 400 million people. As a direct result of CBP’s successful enforcement of United States security and trade laws, America’s frontline removes over 7,000 pounds of narcotics, $180,000 in illicit currency, and $650,000 worth of fraudulent commercial merchandise daily that otherwise would have gained unlawful entry into the United States. The seizure and forfeiture of property terminates and deters threats to national and economic security.

CBP’s Seized Property (SP) Program is the agency-wide program that supports CBP’s law enforcement operations and preserves the deterrent effect of seizures through the secure and effective management of seized and forfeited property. The SP Program supports the components of CBP’s law enforcement offices that are directly responsible for controlling SP and components of CBP’s offices dedicated to supporting law enforcement’s SP activities. CBP also provides substantial SP management and security to other law enforcement agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies contributing to the Department of Treasury’sU.S. Treasury Forfeiture Fund (TFF). CBP’s SP Program generates substantial revenue for TFF through the sale of forfeited property. The Treasury Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture (TEOAF), in turn, disburses TFF funds to support the law enforcement activities of CBP and other TFF member agencies.

The SP Program is a vital program that is large, growing, and centered on the mission. Therefore, to best direct this program, a coordinated effort of key business partners was initiated to develop a strategic plan. The strategic direction of CBP’s Seized Property Program 2009 – 2013 Strategic Plan is to provide a secure SP process to CBP’s law enforcement offices that alleviates the administrative burden of seizures and promotes performance and financial clarity. This plan presents a vision for the SP Program for the secure and effective management of seized property; characterized by unquestioned SP integrity, assured due process of law, enhanced national security capacity, a maximized self-sufficient financial state, and continuous operational improvement.

We will realize this strategic direction and vision by achieving three goals:

  • Enhance the Public Trust and Safeguard Investigations – Support legal proceedings with absolute process and chain of custody integrity and robust oversight and quality assurance.
  • Expand Enforcement Capacity through Proficient SP Program Support – Enhance the agency’s ability to protect America through the provision of highly efficient program administration, harmonized agency-wide efforts, and effective program and financial management.
  • Increase Funding of SP Enforcement Operations – Achieve an optimal financial state and capitalize on the SP Program's unique revenue and funding opportunities.

The Seized Property Program Strategic Plan is aligned with DHS and CBP strategic direction and complements the Securing America’s Borders at Ports of Entry, Secure Border Initiative, and Resource Allocation strategic plans. We will continue to coordinate and work in close, seamless cooperation across CBP and with other U.S. Government agencies to best support national security and law enforcement.

Jayson P. Ahern
Acting Commissioner, U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Table of Contents

Executive Summary

CBP’s Seized Property Program

Mission and Vision

Goals and Objectives

Strategies and Actions

Appendix

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

Executive Summary

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is America’s frontline, protecting the Nation from threats to our security and preventing terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the United States. At ports of entry (POEs), the Office of Field Operations (OFO) secures the flow of people and goods into and out of the country, while facilitating legitimate travel and trade. Between POEs, the Office of Border Patrol (OBP) maintains border security over 7,500 expansive miles of land border. The Office of CBP Air and Marine (CBP A&M) uses its integrated air and marine fleets to detect, sort, intercept, track, and apprehend criminals at and beyond the U.S. border.

In fulfilling the agency’s mission, CBP’s law enforcement personnel must regularly exclude illegal or harmful property and illegal immigrants from entry into the United States. Seizure is an effective method of exclusion to terminate the threat posed to America and deter further attempts at unlawful activity. Each day, CBP Officers and Border Patrol Agents, with assistance from CBP Air and Marine (CBP A&M) Interdiction Agents, seize property such as narcotics and prohibited firearms, unsafe food and fraudulent consumer products, and undeclared currency. CBP may also take custody of any conveyance or other property used to attempt circumvention of U.S. laws. Additionally, CBP controls other merchandise on which duties, taxes, and fees are not paid or property that remains unclaimed at POEs, called General Order (GO) merchandise.

To support CBP’s law enforcement operations and preserve the deterrent effect of seizures, CBP must fulfill its compliance responsibility to maintain stringent controls over property that is excluded from entry by CBP when enforcing security, immigration, and customs laws. Operationally, this entails the careful recordation, timely transport, and efficient storage, sale, and disposal of seized property (SP), all while maintaining the security of SP during its lifecycle in CBP’s custody. CBP manages a massive volume of SP annually across OBP, OFO, CBP A&M, and other Government agencies, with an Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 value of approximately $1.4 billion. Securing and managing SP and processing cases are important administrative activities that must be conducted to further enhance the law enforcement benefits that accrue from enforcement seizures.

The agency’s SP Programsupports offices that execute these vital tasks for the agency. The SP Program secures and accounts for SP and provides proficient program and administrative support to CBP’s frontline law enforcement personnel. Program members include the components of CBP’s offices dedicated to supporting law enforcement’s SP activities, including OFO’s Fines Penalties and Forfeitures (FP&F) Division, OBP’s Asset Forfeiture Program, the Office of Finance’s (OF) Seized and Forfeited Property Division (SFPD), and representatives from CBP A&M’s budget and operations offices. The Program is not led by any one office, but instead exists as a forum and collaborative framework for organizations that execute similar and often complementary SP functions. The Program supports communication to solve common problems. CBP’s SP Program promotes integration, when feasible and practical, while fostering the development of individual areas of expertise.

The scope and volume of CBP’s SP activities have increased significantly since former components of the U.S. Customs Service, the Border Patrol, and the Immigration Inspector section of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) were combined into CBP as part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003. Additionally, increases in frontline personnel and their effectiveness have produced heightened levels of law enforcement actions, including seizures. Further, due to the agency’s unique position at the border, CBP provides other law enforcement agencies with valuable enforcement operations support, SP handling, secure storage, as well as regulatory and legal expertise.

Controlling harmful, illegal, or otherwise inadmissible property throughout the SP lifecycle is a challenging duty as seizure volumes continue to rise across our expansive country. In this complex environment, the SP Program must secure SP and support geographically disbursed enforcement operations, while operating world-class business practices that minimize security vulnerabilities and maximize efficiency. Examples of key business challenges faced by CBP’s SP Program are: relieving the administrative burden of seizures on frontline enforcement resources, capturing opportunities to minimize inventory costs, and addressing contractor performance issues through strengthened security controls.


To confront these challenges with confidence, CBP has defined the SP Program’s vision:

The intent of the Seized Property Program Strategic Plan is to define a roadmap that guides the organization to fulfill this vision, support CBP’s law enforcement offices engaged in SP activities, and accomplish shared CBP and Treasury aspirations. The development of such a roadmap is not intended to formulate priorities contrary to CBP’s priorities or encroach on the authorities of CBP’s offices.

The strategic direction of CBP’s SP Program is to provide a secure SP process to CBP’s law enforcement offices that alleviates the administrative burden of seizures and promotes performance and financial clarity. Additionally, CBP’s SP Program is dedicated to improving, wherever practical, the consistency and unification of its SP process across the agency to deter non-compliance and increase confidence in the SP Program. Program members are charged with maintaining the public’s trust by executing a process that affords due process and treats seizures and SP with the urgency they deserve as a critical function of CBP’s mission. When this strategic direction is sustained by a strong program support infrastructure, CBP’s SP Program will be brought to the foreground as an effective enabler of national and economic security.

Seized Property Program Strategic Plan aligns with existing plans and provides additional detail regarding high-level program objectives. The execution of this plan will best support CBP’s law enforcement personnel to secure America, maintain the integrity of SP, and capitalize on the SP Program’s unique revenue and funding opportunities. The plan presents three goals:

  1. Enhance the Public Trust and Safeguard Investigations
  2. Expand Enforcement Capacity through Proficient SP Program Support
  3. Increase Funding of SP Enforcement Operations

The SP Program offices, including OBP, OFO, CBP A&M, and OF, are committed to coordinating to achieve these goals, thereby improving overall SP Program effectiveness and expanding Program benefits to all key business partners.
Figure 1 illustrates the strategic framework for CBP’s SP Program Strategic Plan. The mission statement defines the scope of responsibility and the vision describes the desired end-state for the SP Program. The goals reflect the high-level results needed to meet the vision and the objectives establish specific, measurable targets. Strategies serve as the “how to” for this strategic plan, providing concrete actions to achieve the objectives. The core capabilities represent the professional skills, assets, and alliances that the SP Program must succeed at daily to provide
proficient support to the agency.

Figure 1 Strategic Framework – SP Program Strategic Plan

CBP’s Seized Property Program

Purpose of the SP Program

The SP Program is the agency-wide program that supports CBP’s law enforcement operations through the secure and effective management of SP. Securing and managing SP and processing seizure cases are important administrative activities that must be conducted properly to further enhance the law enforcement benefits that accrue from seizures, including deterrence of future illegal activity and funding of law enforcement operations from the proceeds of illegal activity. The Program’s members are dedicated to delivering a high-quality SP process to the agency’s frontline that promotes CBP’s law enforcement power and maintains SP integrity, while capitalizing on the SP Program’s unique funding and efficiency opportunities.

SP Program members include CBP offices that, as a result of executing their unique border security missions, seize property at the border, control SP while under CBP’s custody, or provide program and administrative support to law enforcement’s SP activities (see Appendix A for a detailed description of Program member roles and key business partners). Program members do not report to the SP Program but instead contribute together to CBP’s overall success with its critical SP duties. Because these offices engage in similar and complementary activities and share priorities, CBP has defined an agency-wide Program that crosses organizational lines to best support the execution of the SP process and to cohesively confront current challenges. The SP Program increases communication and coordination across member offices to achieve greater financial and performance clarity into CBP’s SP operations and to unify agency-wide processes, where suitable. The advancement of this Program as a more formal entity within CBP does not preclude CBP’s offices (or “Program members”) from exercising individual authorities.

Recognizing that ownership over enforcement operations resides with respective CBP offices, and that any operational changes must be approved through designated chains of command, the SP Program is committed to evaluating the agency’s SP activities to verify compliance and improve efficiency. This SP Program Strategic Plan is the cornerstone of the SP Program’s improvement efforts and guides CBP’s SP Integrated Program Team (IPT). The IPT coordinatesthe SP Program’s improvement efforts by convening Program members and business partners, including the Office of International Trade (OT), TEOAF, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), to address priority challenges and shape strategic initiatives. The IPT fosters a consensus-based approach to implementing improvement options by seeking input from across Program members and business partners on SP administrative matters. The Program and IPT will also report to the SP Governance Board comprised of senior level individuals from across the agency to resolve high-level policy, resource, and process concerns.

Roles and Responsibilities within the SP Program

CBP Organization / Overall Organization Role Description / Role Description in Context of Seized Property
CBP Enforcement Offices / OFO secures the flow of goods and people into and out of the country while facilitating legitimate trade and travel at U.S. Ports of Entry (POEs).
OBP secures and maintains operational control over U.S. borders between POEs, preventing the entry of terrorists and terrorist weapons into the United States.
CBP A&M uses integrated air and marine forces to detect and prevent the unlawful movement of people, illegal drugs, and other contraband toward or across U.S. borders. / Initiate seized property process through enforcement actions and perform property handling and case processing.
OFO’s Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures (FP&F) Division represents OFO in the SP Program.
OBP’s Asset Forfeiture Program represents OBP in the SP Program.
CBP A&M’s Budget and Program Management personnel represent CBP A&M in the SP Program.
OF / Responsible for financial management and accountability, including accounting, budget, financial systems, procurement and acquisition, facilities and engineering, asset management, investment management, and oversight of all financial operations within CBP. / Perform fiduciary responsibilities and business functions, including contract management, GO program, budget, and facilities.
SFPD represents OF in the SP Program and is CBP’s liaison to TEOAF.
Business Partner / Overall Organization Role Description / Role Description in Context of Seized Property
Treasury / Serve the American people and strengthen national security by managing the U.S. Government’s finances effectively, promoting economic growth and stability, and ensuring the safety, soundness, and security of U.S. and international financial systems. / Collect revenue and disburse funds to member agencies by managing the TFF and administer the national seized property storage contract.
ICE / Protect America and uphold public safety by identifying criminal activities and eliminating vulnerabilities that pose a threat to our nation’s borders, as well as enforcing economic, transportation and infrastructure security. / Formulate cases against people who attempt to enter unlawful goods and seize money or materials that support criminal activities.
OT / Direct the national trade policy and program functions of CBP and provide uniformity and clarity for the development of CBP’s national strategy to facilitate legitimate trade / Develop trade policies and enforcement priorities that result in seizures and analyze trade violations and trends to report on CBP outcomes.

Benefits of the SP Program


CBP’s SP Program strives to contribute maximum benefits to its Program members and business partners within a complex operating environment. Figure 2 summarizes the key benefits to each group.

Figure 2 SP Program Benefits

Mission and Vision


CBP’s mission statement, describing its scope of responsibility for handling seized and forfeited property and supporting CBP’s enforcement operations, is:


The vision describes the desired end-state for CBP’s SP Program. The successful combination of these elements creates a well-functioning program and, more broadly, a more effective law enforcement and SP community.