U.S. Navy veteran Jomaica De Villa’s path to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) started with a chance encounter a decade ago. After college, De Villa immigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines to join her family. Soon after, she was working at a restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area when she spotted a man wearing a “nice blue uniform” and asked him about his job. The man turned out to be a CBP officer, and he told her about his career, the CBP mission, and how he came to join the agency. After that encounter, De Villa said, “I just felt I wanted to be part of what they were doing, but the path of how to get there was not clear.”
She knew she had to start somewhere, and she decided to enlist in the Navy, following advice from her father. De Villa served honorably as an Aviation Electrician with Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 195, the “Dambusters”, which was assigned to the USS Ronald Reagan in the Western Pacific. Four years later, De Villa was back in Southern California to continue her military career in San Diego. While she was in San Diego, her command needed a legal clerk and she volunteered to fill the position to expand her skills and training. At the same time, she was working on her Master’s in Management major in Homeland Security and was already starting to think about life after active duty. “It was challenging juggling work and school, but I had the support of my family, supervisor, and friends. I knew it would pay off,” she said.
Throughout her time in the Navy, her goal of someday working for CBP remained in the back of her mind. Less than a year before the end of her military contract, De Villa was browsing LinkedIn and saw a post shared by a local veterans group about CBP SkillBridge opportunities in San Diego. The post was authored by Jeffrey Jack, CBP National Veterans Employment Program Manager (VEPM). Although she previously heard of the Department of Defense SkillBridge Program, De Villa had never come across opportunities in San Diego. “I knew about SkillBridge, but it was only Washington, D.C., at Headquarters, at the time,” she said.
De Villa recalled her meeting with the CBP officer years before and her desire to work for CBP but wasn’t sure if she had enough time left on her military contract to participate in the SkillBridge program. She decided to reach out to Jack and let the Agency determine if she was eligible.
The two connected and discussed the details of the program, which affords transitioning, eligible, and qualified service members the ability to participate in strictly non-law enforcement internships nationally during their last 180 days of active-duty service. In chatting with Jack, De Villa discovered that she met the program’s requirements and soon found herself beginning her six-month SkillBridge internship in San Diego with CBP’s Fines, Penalties, and Forfeitures (FP&F) Division at the Port of Otay Mesa.
Housed within the Office of Field Operations (the same parent organization of the CBP officer she had encountered several years prior), FP&F supports enforcement actions made by CBP and Homeland Security Investigations. The division is responsible for the back-end work that protects the government’s revenue as well as the storage and destruction of narcotics and other potentially harmful illicit goods.
The SkillBridge internship allowed De Villa to showcase her talents and grow professionally with the support of her CBP supervisors and colleagues, whom she credits for her success. She is also grateful to her Navy supervisors who signed off on her participation in the program, and to Jack for his strong support and advocacy in promoting her placement in this SkillBridge opportunity.
For De Villa, the path to CBP was all about fate. After meeting the CBP officer and coming across the SkillBridge posts years later, she knew it was meant to be. When the opportunity presented itself, she was ready to give it her best. “I was so ready to jump, so ready to contribute,” she said. “It was really a dream for me to work for CBP.”
Within two weeks of completing the six-month internship, De Villa received a tentative job offer to stay with FP&F as a Paralegal Specialist. Now in a full-time position with CBP, “I want to be the best paralegal I can be,” she said. “I am grateful for the opportunity.”
Gilbert Ayala, De Villa’s supervisor and a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, praised De Villa’s work ethic and contributions to the CBP mission. “She has always been willing to learn and has applied her skillset to be one of the best paralegals in our office,” Ayala said. “She is a very much welcomed addition to my team and I look forward to her continued success with CBP.”
Transitioning from active duty can be scary, but De Villa said Jack made the leap possible. “Jeffrey Jack, a Navy veteran himself, is such a great advocate for us veterans,” said De Villa. Her advice to other transitioning service members is to get in contact with Jack and leverage his connections to find their next mission. “Because of him, I was able to expand my network, talk to the right person, and gain skills and experiences,” she said.
Transitioning service members can contact Jeffrey Jack, CBP’s VEPM, at Jeffrey.R.Jack@cbp.dhs.gov to discuss how to participate in the DoD SkillBridge internship program within CBP and also learn more about CBP’s other veterans recruitment programs by joining the CBP Talent Network.
