Good morning. Before September 11, 2001, I saw the gaps in national security. For many years, the US Customs Service was on the front lines of the US government's war on drugs. It was a war waged against a nameless, faceless opponent with no capital city, no army, and no way to determine when and if that war had been won. In what I can only assume was a misguided attempt to put a face on the enemy, I witnessed African American and Hispanic women being singled out and subjected to humiliating and abusive pat-down inspections, intrusive strip-searches, invasive X-rays and cavity searches, and prolonged detentions, which sometimes lasted up to four days.

I came forward and exposed these practices in 1998. Customs responded by eliminating racial profiling practices and focusing on suspect behaviors instead. As a result, drug arrests made by Customs increased by 300 percent. I thought this dramatic increase in productive searches and arrests would forever put an end to these practices.

But I was wrong. In the aftermath of September 11th, the US Customs Service merged with 21 federal agencies under the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Is awareness with regards to terrorism better since September 11, 2001? Yes. Is security better? No! This merger has done nothing but weaken the security of this country while undermining civil liberties.

The war on terror is also a war waged against nameless, faceless opponents who have no capital city and no army, and there is no way to determine when and if that war has been won. Even though many changes were made after I came forward, since September 11th, US Customs is sowly going back to its old ways. The targeting of certain groups -- specifically Arab and Muslim Americans and travelers who are citizens of Arab and Muslim nations -- has increased.

In taking this one step toward embracing discredited racial profiling practices, US Customs has forced the entire nation to take a huge step backwards. In the same way Customs missed hundreds of individuals trafficking drugs, we have now set up the same set of circumstances under which national security measures could miss the next potential terrorist.

The abuse and humiliation suffered by international travelers and others is deplorable and should not be condoned by the DHS. Now is the time for this administration to support legislation that will put provisions in place to protect travelers and others in order to eradicate all forms of racial profiling by passing the End

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