TSA Announces Enrollment Dates at the Ports of La Porte, Galveston and Freeport, Texas for the Federal Transportation Worker Identification Credential
April 22, 2008
Andrea M. McCauley
817-528-0470
HOUSTON – Port workers, longshoremen, truckers and others at the ports of La Porte, Galveston and Freeport, Texas will begin enrolling individuals in the Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program. The program's goal is to ensure that any individual who has unescorted access to secure areas of port facilities and vessels has received a thorough background check and is not a security threat. Nationwide, more than 1 million workers with unescorted access to secure areas will apply in 2008.
"The start of enrollment is one more step in our effort to prevent persons who are a threat from gaining access to secure areas of port facilities," said Maurine Fanguy, TWIC program director for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). "We appreciate the support of our partners at the three ports for helping to make one of the world's most advanced interoperable biometric systems a reality."
Enrollment launch dates and locations are:
| La Porte | April 23 | TWIC Enrollment Center 621 W. Main St. La Porte, TX 77571-4961 |
Hours of Operation M-F: 8 a.m.- 5 p.m. |
| Galveston | April 30 | TWIC Enrollment Center 6000 Broadway, Suite 103 Galveston, TX 77551-4386 |
Hours of Operation M-F: 8 a.m.- 5 p.m. |
| Freeport | May 1 | TWIC Enrollment Center Brazos Mall 100 Hwy 332 West Lake Jackson, TX 77566-4037 |
Hours of Operation M-F: 8 a.m.- 5 p.m. |
La Porte, Galveston and Freeport are among the ports that have begun enrollment in the nationwide program. Ultimately, TSA will establish fixed enrollment centers at 147 ports and will deploy mobile enrollment centers to dozens of other locations as needed.
Workers at the ports are able to pre-enroll for TWIC online at www.tsa.gov/twic or the Coast Guard's Homeport site, http://homeport.uscg.mil. Pre-enrolling speeds up the process by allowing workers to provide biographic information and schedule a time to complete the application process in person. This eliminates waiting at enrollment centers and reduces the time it takes to enroll each individual.
