>> My name is Amy Cloud. I'm the CBP Attaché in Bogota, Colombia.
Bogota is a beautiful city surrounded by mountains,
and when I have visitors, I have the opportunity to take them to places like Monserrate,
where they can see a beautiful view of the city,
to the Plaza Bolivar, where we're standing right now,
the historic heart of the city.
And also to visit the various restaurants,
museums and other cultural activities that the city has to offer.
I arrived in Colombia as the very first CBP attaché here.
It took a little while to get the office stood up
and get an assistant hired, figure out the budget,
figure out the processes within the embassy.
I definitely had support from CBP Headquarters,
but there's a lot that has to be done in-country in order
to make an office run.
From there, it was actually very easy meeting
with Colombian Migration,
Colombian Customs with the private sector,
because CBP has so much to offer those entities
in terms of information sharing.
>> You know, we didn't have a CBP unit here,
so when we got Amy Cloud who came down to be the attaché,
I was really enthusiastic about having somebody to work
on critical issues with the Colombian government,
including special interest aliens,
and moving forward on these high priority activities like pre-clearance.
Global Entry is a passion of mine.
I really wanted to get Global Entry started here.
And Amy has been able to socialize
that more among the Colombians who might be eligible for it,
might be interested in it, because it's good for U.S. business,
it's actually good for our Colombian counterparts as well.
>> A typical day as a CBP attaché can include meeting
with my embassy counterparts on projects that we're working on together,
contacting my Colombian government counterparts
on programs of mutual interest,
checking in to see where we are, answering phone calls from the public
or emails with inquiries about travel processes in the U.S.,
and of course being in touch with CBP Headquarters
to let them know the status of all our projects.
>> Amy Cloud is providing us real-time information from Bogota
that we wouldn't be able to get
unless we traveled to Colombia ourselves.
So every day, she's talking to our counterparts
in the government, law enforcement, and feeding us that information
so that we can better form our strategy
for the placement of personnel for the Immigration Advisory Program,
pre-clearance and other CBP mission programs.
>> CBP is interested in working with the Colombian government
in two main ways, here in Bogota at the airport.
One is through pre-clearance expansion;
Bogota was selected as a finalist for pre-clearance.
And so we are meeting regularly
with the Colombian government and airport authorities
in order to implement that program.
Additionally, ever since we signed a passenger information
sharing agreement,
CBP has been sending experts who can help work
with the Colombian agencies at the airport
to improve their targeting practices.
This is done through training, sharing of best practices,
and on-the-job observation.
>> The importance of having this relation with Amy and CBP
is that we have had the opportunity
to get access to the National Targeting Center,
and to other officers of the U.S. government
that will help us construct and build a better relation,
not only with CBP, but internally with our Customs process.
>> You know, one of the things that I most admire about Amy is,
she's really a can-do person. She figures out ways to get things done.
The critical component in that is being able to plug
in directly to the right parts of DHS,
which is not immediately transparent from down here.
And so being able to navigate the interagency up
there has been critically important.
I am so grateful for all DHS does for us down here; not only CBP,
but HSI -- critical components of the country team.
We're just so grateful that they're here with us here.