doi:10.7916/vped-8m14Oral history interview with Alan D. Bersin, 2021Bersin, Alan Douglas, 1946-oral historiesmixed materialPresidents--United StatesH1N1 influenza--EpidemicsEbola virus disease--EpidemicsEmigration and immigration--History.--United StatesBersin, Alan Douglas, 1946-Obama, BarackUnited States Department of Homeland SecurityUnited States U.S. Customs and Border ProtectionAlan Bersin reflects on his work in the Obama administration, in which he served as commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from 2010 to 2011, and in a variety of roles in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from 2009 to 2017, including assistant decretary of international affairs, special representative for border affairs, and chief diplomatic officer. Bersin discusses the design and evolution of both CBP and DHS, and outlines the major security challenges the administration faced over the course of both terms. Bersin focuses on the importance of interagency coordination and transnational collaboration to effective security operations, and provides details about major events and initiatives with which he was closely involved, including the administration's responses to the crises on the southern border in 2009 and 2014, the H1N1 and Ebola outbreaks, the U.S.-Mexico Twenty-First-Century Border Management framework, and the U.S.-Canada Beyond the Border Action Plan. Bersin also reflects on how government counterterrorism activities reshape understandings of national borders, the balance between trade and counterterrorism in CBP's mandate, the importance of immigration to American history and contemporary life, and the elevation of immigration as a partisan wedge issue