God, Family, Country avid reader, lover of red pandas, cats and dachshunds, veteran
#customs at US airports??#BorderPatrol#cbp#AlaskaAirlines#SEATAC
Please, someone, explain this!! My husband and I recently flew to our neighbor to the North. As an international flight, we went through Customs and Immigration before being allowed into the rest of the airport to enjoy our stay. Our return to the US was very unexpected, and we have yet to get an answer from anyone official.
We were required to show/verify our passports by the airline before boarding. The weird part was when we arrived. The plane pulled up to the gate. We exited... into one of the main concourses of the airport - free to leave. No customs, no declarations of goods, no questions by anyone!!
We asked the gate agent at the counter about it... we asked other security at the airport about it. My husband CALLED the airlines status line about it. I looked up regulations for CBP, border entry, etc. online to see if anything has legally changed. Nope...
God, Family, Country avid reader, lover of red pandas, cats and dachshunds, veteran
Apparently, anyone could come in with an ID check and bring whatever the heck they wanted with them - no bag checks, no questions??? WTH?? And the only check while still in Canada was done by the Airline staff. (It did seem fairly thorough, but still??)
The people we talked with at the airport either shrugged, actually laughed, had no explanations except perhaps that was taken care of by Canada ?? ummmm.... This would be our U.S. country now relying on a different country for our national security?? Obviously people are being let in in so many different ways, but this was beyond eye-popping, and I can find no "legal" documents that have any changes made to airline entry to the U.S. for U.S. citizens, mind you, that is what WE are. The whole planeload of passengers came off the ramp into the direct airport free to go wherever they chose from there.
