Background Checks for Seaport Workers Will Cost
The Department of Homeland Security last week came one step closer to fixing a persistent hole that has plagued U.S. ports for years when officials announced the final details of their planned Transportation Worker Identification Credential, a long-delayed program that will provide secure identification cards to the more than 750,000 U.S. workers who need unescorted access to the secure areas of U.S. seaports.
The rule, which the recently passed SAFE Ports Act required DHS to issue by January 1, prohibits those convicted of crimes including rape, kidnapping, money laundering, and improper use or sale of an explosive from working in U.S. ports for up to seven years after their convictions or five years after incarceration–unless they receive a special government-issued waiver. Those convicted of treason, espionage, sedition, or acts of terrorism are prohibited from working in seaports in all cases, no matter how much time has elapsed since conviction. Workers will also be checked against terrorist watch lists.
Some unions and prominent members of Congress overseeing DHS–including Rep. Bennie Thompson, the new head of the House's Homeland Security Committee–had criticized earlier versions of the regulations for including too many crimes that didn't appear to have any connection to terrorism. TSA made some clarifications to limit the number of such disqualifying crimes: Passing a bad check or committing welfare fraud, for instance, will not be counted against someone.
Still, many in the port community are nervous that the new TWIC rules could gut the number of workers in U.S. ports. All workers in the country illegally will not be eligible for the identification cards. Michael H. Belzer, professor of industrial relations at Wayne State University, has estimated that as many as half of the roughly 110,000 truckers carrying containers in and out of the country's seaports are here illegally. The percentage is especially high in the Port of Los Angeles, the largest in the country. And with the United States receiving 95 percent of its imports by sea each year, the consequences of a work shortage could be high.
The Transportation Security Administration (the DHS agency overseeing the ID program), however, downplays the slowdowns that the program will have on commerce, arguing that when similar checks were made on truckers carrying hazardous cargo recently, less than 1 percent of the workers didn't pass the background and immigration checks. Kip Hawley, the head of the TSA, says, "We don't have any apology for requiring a legal residency."
Cost will also be an issue for some workers, according to labor groups. The cards will be good for five years and cost between $139 and $159, an expense workers will likely pick up. Every port worker in the country will need to have the card in 20 months, although many ports won't obtain readers capable of scanning the cards until later.
Still, longshoremen at the massive Port of New York/New Jersey complex recently expressed their worries about the thousands of truckers that enter their port each day, citing the lack of information about truckers as a major security gap.
"We've been saying 'hello' to each other every day for the last 20 years," said longshoreman Tony Tomasino of the close-knit longshoremen community. "But we have no idea who these truckers are. They're complete fly-by-nights."
advertisement
