Monte Hawkins
Director, National Vetting Center
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
Monte Hawkins currently serves as the first Director of the National Vetting Center (NVC). President Trump tasked the establishment of the NVC on February 6th, 2018 when he signed National Security Presidential Memorandum Nine (NSPM-9). The NVC will strengthen, simplify, and streamline the complex, ad hoc, and inefficient way that intelligence is used to inform operational decisions and allow each vetting partner to contribute its unique information, ensuring that adjudications of border security- and immigration-related benefits and protections are informed by all appropriate information available to the U.S. Government in accordance with law and while maintaining robust privacy, civil rights, and civil liberty protections.
Prior to this position, Monte served as the Senior Director for the Border and Transportation Security Directorate in the National Security Council (NSC) for both the Obama and Trump administrations where he coordinated policy development in areas such as aviation and maritime security, immigration, screening and watchlisting, biometrics, and information sharing. He previously served in other roles at the NSC including as the Director for Law Enforcement Policy in the Bush administration in 2008, the Director for Identity Management and Biometrics Policy in the Obama administration from 2009-2011, and then as the Senior Advisor for Migrant Screening and Vetting for the Obama administration in 2016. Monte has also served in various positions at the National Counterterrorism Center, CIA’s Counterterrorism Mission Center, FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, and the U.S. Secret Service.
Monte is currently a member of the adjunct faculty at Georgetown University. He received his B.A. in Sociology from the University of Tulsa and his M.A. in Criminology/Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland-College Park.