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United States Customs and Border Protection

customs service of the United States since 2003

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ368804 ↗
Source-derived summary

United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the largest federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security. It is the country's primary border control organization, charged with regulating and facilitating international trade, collecting import duties, as well as enforcing U.S. regulations, including trade, customs, and immigration. The CBP is one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the United States. It has a workforce of more than 45,600 federal agents and officers. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

Organization

The CBP has a workforce of over 58,000 employees, including officers and agents, agriculture specialists, aircraft pilots, trade specialists, mission support staff, and canine enforcement officers and agents.

Approximately 33,300 CBP officers inspect and examine passengers and cargo at 328 ports of entry.

About 2,200 CBP agriculture specialists work to curtail the spread of harmful pests and plant and animal diseases that may harm America's farms and food supply or cause bio- and agro-terrorism.

About 21,000 Border Patrol agents protect and patrol 1,900 miles (3,100 km) of border with Mexico and 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of border with Canada.

Roughly 1,000 air and marine interdiction agents prevent people, weapons, narcotics, and conveyances from illegal entry by air and water.

Roughly 2,500 employees in CBP revenue positions collect over $30 billion annually in entry duties and taxes through the enforcement of trade and tariff laws.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “United States Customs and Border Protection” as customs service of the United States since 2003. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around United, States and Customs.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current 228-word lead offers orientation but no explicit four-digit date, so chronology should not be assumed. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2003-03-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with United, States and Customs providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “United States Customs and Border Protection”, the useful work is to connect “customs service of the United States since 2003” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q368804. VIAF identifies the subject as 124686829. The Library of Congress control number is no2004040772. 1 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “United States Customs and Border Protection”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow United States Customs and Border Protection primary sources, United States Customs and Border Protection archive and United research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “United States Customs and Border Protection” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.