SANTA TERESA, N.M. – U.S. Customs and Border Protection Santa Teresa Port Director Charles G. Perez was formally sworn into office this morning at a CBP Field Operations change of command ceremony. Family, friends, colleagues and local dignitaries gathered as Mr. Perez recited the oath of office during a ceremony at the War Eagles Museum at the Dona Ana County Airport.
“As a native of southern New Mexico it is a personal and professional honor to assume the role of Santa Teresa Port Director,” said Charles G. Perez, CBP Santa Teresa Port Director. “This port of entry plays an important role in keeping our nation safe while also fostering a continually growing level of legitimate trade and travel in our region. We will continue on that path and work hard to serve our many stakeholders with the highest level of professionalism possible.”
As the Port Director, Mr. Perez will direct operations and enforcement activities and provide management and administrative oversight of CBP officers, Agriculture Specialists, and Canine Enforcement Officers working with the area port operations. Mr. Perez provides guidance to the areas under his leadership through policy implementation and quality management.
Mr. Perez will work to ensure that the agency’s primary mission of preventing terrorists or weapons of terror from entering the United States is accomplished on a daily basis. Mr. Perez is also responsible for all immigration issues related to the admission and exclusion of people applying for entry into the United States. He is also responsible for customs and agriculture inspections at the ports of entry to ensure that all goods and people entering the United States do so in accordance with our laws and regulations, while ensuring that they are efficient in their processing to support the global market place and the international tourism industries.
Prior to his selection as Area Port Director, Mr. Perez was the Area Port Director, for Houston Airports at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and Houston Service Port from 2014 to 2017. During his career, Mr. Perez has served as the assistant port director of passenger operations at IAH from 2007 to 2014, a supervisory program manager assigned to the Office of Field Operations Headquarters’ office in Washington D.C. from 2005 to 2007 and from 1995 to 2005 supervised at the ports of Vancouver Pre-Clearance, IAH, the Houston Seaport and El Paso TX.
Mr. Perez began his career in 1986 as a U.S. customs canine enforcement officer serving at the port of Brownsville, Texas. In 1988 he transferred to the position of customs inspector at the port of Columbus, New Mexico.
Mr. Perez was born in Las Cruces NM, and raised in Mesilla, NM. He is a 1986 graduate of New Mexico State University and a 2012 graduate of the University of Chicago CBP Command Leadership Institute.
CBP Field Operations in 2008 adopted formal change of command ceremonies as another way to unify the workforce and highlight the agency mission. Since its inception in March 2003, CBP has developed and implemented standards, policies and symbols to advance the internal and external recognition of the agency and to demonstrate the strides the agency has made as the guardians of the nation’s borders. The change of command ceremony is designed to meet those goals.