June 6, 2008 – Port and longshore workers, truckers and others on St. Croix have begun to enroll in the Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program. The goal of the program 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.
Ultimately, the program will be rolled out to 147 enrollment centers across the United States and will vet more than 1.2 million maritime transportation system workers through April of 2009.
"We appreciate the support of our partners on the island of St. Croix for helping to make one of the world's most advanced interoperable biometric systems a reality," said TWIC Director for the Transportation Security Administration Maurine Fanguy.
Workers on St. Croix can pre-enroll for TWIC online at: www.tsa.gov/twic or the Coast Guard's Homeport site: http://homeport.uscg.mil. Pre-enrolling will speed 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.
The TWIC Enrollment Center is at Renaissance Park, Estate Anguilla, Kingshill, St. Croix, V.I. 00851-9999.