Spotlights

By John Davis Near the remote U.S. Customs and Border Protection outpost in St. Juste, Maine, stands a small apple orchard. Each spring, as the sun’s rays finally help the soil revive from a deep winter slumber, the apple trees sprout blossoms, which in the fall become the delectable fruit. And, as in the cliché, the apples don’t fall from far from the trees. Similarly, the legacy of the CBP officer who planted the orchard years ago doesn’t fall far from his agency roots. “My dad had a passion for apples and his apple orchard,” said CBP Officer Kevin MacCallum, the oldest son of CBP Officer...

U.S. Navy veteran Jomaica De Villa’s path to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) started with a chance encounter a decade ago. After college, De Villa immigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines to join her family. Soon after, she was working at a restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area when she spotted a man wearing a “nice blue uniform” and asked him about his job. The man turned out to be a CBP officer, and he told her about his career, the CBP mission, and how he came to join the agency. After that encounter, De Villa said, “I just felt I wanted to be part of what they were doing...

On Super Bowl Sunday, it was Mark Spruill's time to shine. “We coordinated and worked well with our teammates,” Spruill said. “We are a specialty team with unique skills, expertise and training that is capable of integrating and working with all of our partners. We came ready to play defense and ready to work with all of our partners.” But he wasn’t on a punt team, or kickoff return, or any kind of special “dime” or “nickel” package like the Philadelphia Eagles or Kansas City Chiefs had. His role was as a vessel commander aboard one of U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Air and Marine...