In her years at Customs and Border Protection, my next guest rose from a newbie uniformed officer to senior executive port director for Newark-New York. That means the fourth busiest airport, and *the* busiest port. TenaVel Thomas joined the Federal Drive with Tom Temin to discuss more.

Interview transcript:

Tom Temin And well, let’s start with what it is you oversee. New York-Newark, everybody knows Newark Airport because all you have to do is drive to New York and you see the darn thing for about ten minutes it takes to drive from one end to the other. It’s high speed. But where is the port in relation to the airport? It sounds like a really complicated piece of infrastructure.

TenaVel Thomas It is. I’m sure if my officers were on and all of my employees were on today, they would tell you the same. First, I want to start by thanking you for having us, and giving me an opportunity to speak about my area of responsibility and certainly about CBP. And as mentioned, I am the the senior executive port director for the Port of New York, Newark. Mostly when people hear that name, they think about just Newark Liberty International Airport, which is one of our areas of responsibility. So it’s the fourth busiest airport in the entire country. But also part of our area is Newark Seaport. And so it is the busiest seaport on the Eastern seaboard, arguably at times. The busiest in the entire country. We process, on average, over $250 billion worth of imports through that port every year. And so we have the busiest seaport, fourth busiest airport on the Eastern seaboard. Also, we’re responsible for three cruise ship terminals, and that is both in New York and New Jersey. And we’re also responsible for five outer airport locations, and that’s also in New York and New Jersey. So it sort of explains why my title is port director for New York-Newark.

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Tom Temin And this is not the logistics discussion. We want to hear about your career. But I’m curious how you get around to the different facilities, because if the average citizen tries to go from point A to point B, it could take two hours.

TenaVel Thomas And it can. And I will tell you quite honestly, if you are looking to drive from either Newark Liberty International or the Seaport and going to Stuart International Airport, which is one of our outer airport locations, and that’s actually in a further upstate New York, It could take two hours to get there and that’s just how large our AOR is, Area of Responsibility. And so if you’re just driving from Newark Liberty just to one of the nearby container terminals, on average 10 to 15 minutes, I will share with you that there is ongoing construction in the port. So that 10 to 15 minutes can easily turn into an hour as well. But I often make a joke, I have this huge map right outside of my office and it actually reflects the entire port and all of our locations. And I usually tell people when I’m showing it to them that if we had an octopus, we wouldn’t have enough tentacles to touch all of the parts that we’re responsible for. But it’s so fascinating because there are so many areas of CBP’s mission that we are responsible at that ports. So it makes the job fun.

Tom Temin And do they give you a chopper to get around?

TenaVel Thomas I wish. I will say my partners, so we work very closely with air marine operations and I did have the opportunity to tour my entire AOR in a helicopter once. It was fascinating to see it from that view.

Tom Temin And how many people do you oversee?

TenaVel Thomas Yeah. So I’m just under 1200 employees in total. That includes CBP officers, Customs and Border Protection officers. I have Customs and Border Protection, agricultural specialists. We also have import specialists that are assigned there as CBP technicians. Many different areas that really help to drive the CBP mission. And every person holds the respective puzzle piece to bring it all together.

Tom Temin We’re speaking with TenaVel Thomas. She’s senior executive port director for New York-Newark at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. And in those 17 years and rising up the ranks, you didn’t just punch a ticket. You’ve got some real accomplishments under your belt, because you have received an award from George Washington University. But you created or helped create the first repatriation processing center at JFK. Somewhere along the line. What is that? And how did that happen?

TenaVel Thomas Yeah. So in the summer of 2021, when we were dealing with Operation Allies, welcome. And there was the the conflicts in Afghanistan. CBP had to put resources together to prepare for the migrants and refugees, rather, who were looking to come into the country. And at the time I was assigned as the acting port director for John F Kennedy International Airport. So my permanent position at the time was as the assistant port director for Passenger, but I was in a temporary role. And so we started to prepare because we thought about not just the number of people that we were processing on a daily basis. And at JFK during that period, we were processing on average, 55,000 passengers a day and thinking about the mass number that we would be increasing with the refugees that were coming. We knew that we couldn’t put it in our regular terminals. So I had the opportunity to work very closely with the airport community, and specifically with Port Authority. We were able to identify real estate on the grounds that were underutilized. And I will say it was such a huge partnership to see everyone get together, identify this building. We had so many resources that were brought in to the facility to help those refugees. But more importantly, from a CBP perspective, we were able to create an environment where if the refugees did come in that we would be able to process them for all of the parts of our exams, and make sure that it was easily facilitated through all of the entities and agencies that would have to encounter them.

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Tom Temin Yeah, that’s the idea that all those agencies and entities, you had to pull together a lot and that’s probably harder than it sounds in the federal setting.

TenaVel Thomas I will say one of the things that really helps is the partnerships and the relationships that we have. And I will tell you that doesn’t just happen overnight. It’s a lot of conversations, a lot of meetings, a lot of coordination. And so when we were faced with that challenge, in hindsight, it’s kind of amazing that we were able to do it that quickly, because it was literally within three days we were able to put this all together. But I will tell you, it really was the partnership. And I’m so grateful not only for the Port Authority, but the partnerships that we have with New York City that was able to bring that all together and make it happen. Now, we definitely got lucky because we didn’t have, ultimately, our airport wasn’t designated as one of the areas, but we were ready to go. And everyone knew that up to include the governor of New York. So it was really impressive feat that we did.

Tom Temin And you’ve also had experience in the human trafficking issue and have had some personal involvement in solving that for at least some individuals.

TenaVel Thomas Yes. So I mentioned that my permanent assignment was as the assistant port director for passenger operations at JFK. And we actually revamped the team that we had there that we gave them a focus on human smuggling and human trafficking, and really being able to use. And so that was shared with us. And I will tell you, it was very early when that team was in operation. My team always made fun of me, because I work all the time. I take my phone with me everywhere I go, even when I’m not at work. And this particular day I was actually out of the office and I received a random email and a random phone call. And when I listened to it, it was someone who was offering a tip. And when I looked at the email, it was quite vague. However, it did let us know that they wanted to pass information, that there was a group of about 6 or 7 individuals who were currently at a departure gate looking to leave the country, who were subjected to indentured servitude. And they didn’t give us the specific flight, but they did tell us where these individuals were going. And so I reached out to my team. I passed the information. I said, look, this is all I have. We have nothing to lose. Just go upstairs and see if you see a group of folks that look like they fit that description and look like they might be afraid. And sure enough, the team did just that. And they called me back. They said, Ma’am, you wouldn’t believe this. We were able to identify them. And and so they did. We interviewed those individuals and they let us know the environment that they were looking to escape from and gave us information that we were able to work with other partner agencies. And ultimately, it led to rescuing 130 other indentured servants. So a very multi-agency operation that that led to.

Tom Temin We are speaking with TenaVel Thomas, senior executive port director for New York-Newark at U.S. Customs and Border Protection. She was honored recently by a George Washington University Fleming Award. We were talking about some of the accomplishments in your career, and there’s one I wanted to ask you about also. According to the citation, you established a full time resilience team with therapy dogs.

TenaVel Thomas Yes. So I did that when I was at the time, I was only an acting port director at Newark. I went there and I had the opportunity to work with the team. I saw that there was a gap in resiliency and wanted to make that a focus, because our workforce deserved it. And so I was able to identify some individuals on my staff who had the background. They were trained in peer support and resiliency. I was able to make it a focus for them and make that their predominant work area. And I certainly got lucky in this aspect where I had one of my officers who had a therapy dog of his own, and it was his personal dog that he had went through training. And we saw an opportunity where for the agency and for the port that we could leverage that and have him bring his dog to work and use her as our therapy dog at work. And so we were able to do that. We got it cleared with CBP, and that was implemented. And I will tell you, she is the cutest thing. Her name is Lucy. She’s absolutely amazing. She’s a Goldendoodle and everyone just absolutely loves her. But what it led to is really an understanding and knowing that agency wide, we needed that resources and CBP has been growing our resources exponentially since then.

Tom Temin And does Daisy get along with the bomb sniffing dogs.

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TenaVel Thomas Yes. They love Lucy. They see her coming, she gets along with them really well. It’s kind of funny because, like I mentioned, I’m not at the port currently, but I saw one where they did a podcast with her recently and she had the headphones over her head. She is the cutest thing.

Tom Temin Yeah, that could be a song, maybe. I love Lucy.  Just imagining that. And in your day-to-day activities at that level of job, What’s your main task? I would think, given the stress that officers actually come under, I’m probably not appreciated by the general public. That must be your main kind of goal is to support your people and let them do their jobs.

TenaVel Thomas Yes, 100%. As a senior executive in the government, we have a responsibility to not only lead the mission, but certainly lead our people and provide them the resources that they need. And I can tell you, being a senior executive out in the field, and certainly at the port of New York-Newark, that is something that I take very near and dear to my heart. And making sure that they have what they need. The job is stressful and effecting the CBP mission, keeping America safe. There is a lot that goes into that, especially with all of the responsibilities that CBP is charged with. And so I appreciate being an advocate for the workforce and giving them everything that they need, and making sure that their voices are heard and their stories are told. And in the position that I am in now, currently serving as the acting executive director for Workforce Care for all of CBP, I get to do that on a larger scale, and so I’m just so grateful of the opportunities that I get to get back to not only the agency but the American people, because they deserve it.

Tom Temin And you are tasked now to this acting director job.

TenaVel Thomas Yes, that’s indeed. So I am I just started here about three weeks ago, and I am serving as the executive director for workforce care. So now in charge of resiliency programs and resources for all of CBP. So it’s over 65,000 people strong and making sure that we’re able to provide them the resources to deal with the day-to-day stressors that the job brings.

Tom Temin We are speaking with TenaVel Thomas, senior Executive Port director for New York-Newark at Customs and Border Protection. And by the way, in your days on the job and maybe even now checking in on things, you hear about what people try to smuggle into the country. I think there’s even a website about that or maybe it’s TSA, I forget. What’s the strangest thing or the most disturbing thing you’ve ever seen people try to bring in?

TenaVel Thomas I have seen quite a bit. Narcotics are always interesting, especially the internal carriers. Everything that goes into the body must come out some way. I will leave that to the imagination as to what that can lead to. But I can tell you those are tough days on the job. I have seen animals that people bring in from other countries where it is a delicacy in their country, but prohibited when you talk about exotic meats. And so that’s interesting. I will tell you, one of the toughest days that I had, tough is only because it was quite gross. Doing a baggage exam, I was a young officer, put my hand in a bag and my hand came out filled with maggots because there was exotic meats in that bag. So you see it all in CBP.

Tom Temin Well, at least the maggots had a good meal that day.

TenaVel Thomas And I was grateful that it was not my hand because I wash it off immediately.

Tom Temin Good. And I guess since we have you and you are a senior executive and you have been, well, a long time at CBP, what’s your best advice for people that might want to join now? And it looks like there might be an expansion of CBP coming with the next administration. We don’t know what their plans are yet, but they support CBP. I think it’s fair to say, without getting into politics. But what would you advise people that might want to join?

TenaVel Thomas Yeah, certainly. I love that question. My advice to anyone that wants to join. First of all, have an account with USA jobs.gov. That’s where it starts. When a lot of people reach out to me and ask, how can I get into CBP? USA jobs.gov. Find yourself up for an account there. Not only would you have access to all of the jobs that CBP has, but from the federal government at large, you would be able to see what positions are out there. I would certainly say also to visit the cbp.gov website, because I think there’s just so many parts to the CBP mission that the average citizen may not understand. It’s not quite knowing all of the nuances of our mission. And so I think just from an education standpoint, that’s huge for people to know that. I will also say that if you are looking to come in as a CBP officers specifically, there is a fitness requirement that is for that, and we have that information on the cbp.gov website as well too. And so you’re able to see the fitness requirements start now with the training, because it makes it so much easier when you get to the academy and having to get into all of that. The last thing I will say and I’ve seen this firsthand because I did have the opportunity to serve as the acting executive director for our Field Operations academy as well. And I think it’s important that sometimes people don’t realize that when you are applying for a government job, every thing that you do and looking at your background and your history and what you’re involved with, what you associate yourself with, these are all things that throughout the background process, questions may come up. So I think when people think about I’m living for the here and now, you always have to be cognizant about your future and what that looks like and think about the decisions that you’re making along the way, because they can certainly impact your future. But join CBP, I absolutely love it. This job has been nothing but amazing to me.

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