U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced the appointment of Gregory Alvarez as Director of San Juan Field Operations, which covers ports of entry in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Alvarez formerly served as Area port director in Laredo, Texas.

As the area port director in Laredo since November 2015, Alvarez was responsible for managing a workforce of 900+, operations and enforcement activities at four international bridges, one international airport and one rail crossing facility; as well as maintaining management and oversight responsibilities for processing more than 8.5 million travelers and $115.5 billion in trade annually.

Alvarez previously served as area port director for Blaine, Wash., from 2009 to 2015. The area includes all ports and stations between the state of Washington and the province of British Columbia, Canada, including air and seaport operations at several ports of entry in the Pacific Northwest (17 ports and stations).

Prior to that, Alvarez served as an assistant service port director for Tactical Operations in Great Falls, Montana, (2007 – 2009) where he maintained administrative management and oversight responsibilities for enforcement and intelligence operations amongst the 18 ports and stations in both Montana and Idaho.

He also served as assistant service port director for Passenger Operations (2006-2007) where he was responsible for the management and oversight of passenger processing programs in the Great Falls area which included: all aspects of admissibility enforcement actions; regularly representing the agency at multi-component law enforcement meetings and functions; working with multi-agency task forces; and, strengthening relationships with tribal partners.

He was first promoted to the position of port director in Del Bonita, Montana (2005), where he was responsible for all administrative and operational functions at a Class A port of entry.