Who Controls the Border Security Checkpoints? Private Companies Now Fund Half a Billion

Why It Matters

Every day, more than 1.15 million people and 88,500 cargo containers cross into the United States through 328 ports of entry. The federal agency responsible for screening them, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, doesn't do it alone.

A little-understood pair of CBP public-private partnership programs has quietly grown into a significant force multiplier for border security, pulling in hundreds of millions of dollars in private contributions and reimbursements to supplement federal staffing and infrastructure. A new Government Accountability Office report, released May 7, 2026, offers the most detailed accounting yet of how these programs work, who is paying into them, and what taxpayers are getting in return.

How the Programs Work

CBP operates two distinct partnership mechanisms at U.S. ports of entry. The first, the Reimbursable Services Program (RSP), allows private partners such as airlines, port authorities, and airport operators to pay CBP directly for officer time outside of regular duty hours. The second, the Donations Acceptance Program (DAP), allows those same kinds of partners to donate cash, equipment, or property to fund infrastructure improvements and technology at ports of entry.

Together, the programs have generated a combined estimated value of more than $580 million since their inception, according to the GAO report. The RSP alone has generated $302.8 million in reimbursements from calendar years 2014 through 2025, funding nearly 1.94 million overtime hours and more than 23 million traveler inspections. The DAP has attracted an estimated $277.3 million in donations since fiscal year 2015.

Explosive Growth in Border Security Partnerships

The scale of these Customs and Border Protection programs has accelerated sharply in recent years. Since the prior GAO review in January 2024, CBP selected 241 new RSP applications and established 334 new memoranda of understanding, bringing the total number of RSP agreements to 798 since fiscal year 2013. The DAP added 24 new partnerships in the same period, growing from 46 total agreements to 70.

The RSP is heavily concentrated at the air ports of entry. Of the 798 total MOUs executed, 659 are at air facilities, accounting for 82 percent of all agreements. The busiest locations for new RSP agreements between October 2023 and December 2025 include Teterboro Airport in New Jersey with 39 agreements, Los Angeles International Airport and Palm Beach International Airport each with 25, and DeKalb-Peachtree Airport in Georgia with 24.

Reimbursements have climbed steadily. In 2022, CBP collected $32.7 million through the RSP. By 2025, that figure had risen to $51 million, the highest annual total on record. The program also expanded its scope during that period to cover special events, including World Cup preparations, where CBP used RSP to expand customs inspections, immigration processing, and agricultural examinations at designated entry points.

What Private Partners Are Donating

The DAP tells a different story about where border security partnerships are heading. Forty-nine of the 70 DAP projects are at land ports of entry, where infrastructure needs are often more acute and more expensive. Several of the largest donations reflect that reality.

Bridging North America contributed a one-time cash donation of $2,028,660 for network connectivity equipment at the Gordie Howe International Bridge in Michigan. The San Diego Association of Governments is funding construction of an entirely new port of entry at Otay Mesa East in California, with a project value calculated over 40 years. Canadian Pacific Kansas City donated a rail vehicle and cargo inspection system for the Laredo Rail Gateway in Texas. The City of Laredo, Texas, is contributing pavement improvements to support a World Trade Bridge expansion.

A separate and growing category of DAP activity involves cash donations for tablets to support CBP's Enhanced Passenger Processing program, a contactless inspection process using auto-capture cameras and biometric facial comparison technology. CBP officials attributed much of the increase in DAP partnerships in fiscal years 2024 and 2025 to this effort. Donors funding EPP tablets include Delta Air Lines for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, American Airlines for JFK Terminal 8, Viking Cruises for sea ports in Duluth, Sault Sainte Marie, and Cleveland, and more than a dozen airport authorities from Minneapolis to Nashville to Philadelphia.

The Statutory Foundation and Congressional Oversight

The GAO's review is mandated by federal statute, specifically the Cross-Border Trade Enhancement Act of 2016, as amended by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, codified at 6 U.S.C. § 301a(d). The law requires GAO to biennially review the agreements, funds, and donations received under both programs. This report is the seventh in the series overall and the second conducted on a biennial cycle.

The report was transmitted to ten congressional committees spanning both chambers, including the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, chaired by Sen. Rand Paul, the Senate Committee on Finance, chaired by Sen. Mike Crapo, the House Committee on Homeland Security, chaired by Rep. Andrew Garbarino, and the House Committee on Ways and Means, chaired by Rep. Jason Smith, among others.

GAO made no new recommendations in this report. A prior recommendation from its first report in this series in 2018, that CBP develop and implement an evaluation plan to assess the overall performance of both programs, was previously concurred with and fully implemented by the agency.

One statutory deadline embedded in the DAP's authorizing language is worth noting. The authority to enter into new agreements for donations of real property is set to terminate on December 31, 2026, except for proposals accepted before that date. Unless Congress acts, that portion of the program will close to new entrants by year's end.

Cargo Screening and the Scale of What Moves Through

The volume of cargo processed through RSP-supported port authority CBP operations underscores the stakes. Between 2014 and 2025, RSP-supported inspections covered 2.43 million vehicles and 2.77 million cargo examinations, including more than 330,000 agricultural inspections. Every day, goods worth approximately $9.2 billion enter the country through these 328 facilities.

The GAO report does not evaluate whether the programs are sufficient to meet current border security demands, nor does it assess the risk profile of the cargo and travelers moving through RSP- and DAP-supported ports. What it does document is a system that has grown substantially in scope, funding, and geographic reach, one that now touches nearly every state in the country and depends increasingly on private dollars to keep federal inspectors working and federal infrastructure functioning.

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