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PRESIDIO, Texas – U.S. Customs and Border Protection Presidio Port Director Benito Reyes Jr. was formally sworn into office November 7 at a CBP change of command ceremony. Family, friends, colleagues, and local dignitaries gathered as Mr. Reyes recited the oath of office during a ceremony at the Presidio Activity Center.
“My goal is to enhance collaboration with the community, our stakeholders and port personnel as we work together to balance legitimate trade and travel with our vital homeland security mission,” said CBP Presidio Port Director Benito Reyes Jr. “It is truly an honor to be bestowed this opportunity to lead the men and women of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Presidio.”
As the Port Director, Mr. Reyes will direct operations and enforcement activities and provide management and administrative oversight of CBP officers, Agriculture Specialists, and Canine Enforcement Officers at the Presidio port of entry and Boquillas international crossing. Mr. Reyes provides guidance to the areas under his leadership through policy implementation and quality management.
Mr. Reyes will work to ensure that the agency’s primary mission of preventing terrorists or weapons of terror from entering the United States is accomplished daily. Mr. Reyes 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 in charge of 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 U.S. laws and regulations, while ensuring that they are efficient in their processing to support the global marketplace and the international tourism industries.
Port Director Reyes began his law enforcement career with the U.S. Customs Service in January 1997 as an inspector assigned to the Laredo Port of Entry. Mr. Reyes’s work ethic and ability to adapt and learn efficiently have afforded him opportunities and assume greater responsibilities within the U.S. Customs Service and the CBP following the creation of the agency in 2003. Prior to being assigned as Port Director at the Port of Presidio, Mr. Reyes served as the Assistant Port Director for Trade Operations at the Port of Del Rio, Texas. In that role Mr. Reyes managed the commercial vehicle and import and export merchandise movements through the port and directed a myriad enforcement-related programs designed to address anti-terrorism and border security enforcement activities in the cargo environment.
Mr. Reyes’ career with the Office of Field Operations (OFO) has included duty locations such as the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston as well as in the Rio Grande valley at the Hidalgo Port of Entry. Mr. Reyes also has several tours with the Container Security Initiative, serving in Thailand and Tokyo, Japan. In August 2013, he was assigned to Preclearance in Toronto, Canada. In 2019 Supervisor Reyes became a CBP Program Manager at the National Targeting Center in Sterling, Virginia. In April 2020, Supervisor Reyes served as a Supervisory CBP officer at the Port of El Paso, Texas, before recently serving as a Supervisory CBP officer at the Port of Calexico, California, in November 2021. Supervisor Reyes’s career also includes tenure as class instructor at the OFO Academy in Glynco, Georgia, where he was the Lead Supervisor of four CBP classes.
Port Director Reyes is a veteran of the United States Army having spent 16 years serving his nation before joining the U.S. Customs Service. Port Director Reyes is originally from Edinburg, Texas, and has been married for 33 years, with two sons and one daughter. Both his sons are currently serving proudly in the U.S. Army.
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.