FWAAA

Funny how the pros at Immigration have managed to allow me back into the country hundreds of times with no more than a cursory glance at my passport plus a swipe of the mag stripe (since those were added).

Yet the agency that has thus far demonstrated incompetence at its core mission (screening passengers and bags efficiently) has taken on the added task of inspecting each page of my passport in a desperate, pathetic attempt to find a fake one.

I've got a better idea: adopt the methodology used by Immigration. Look at it and swipe it and keep the lines moving.

And people actually ask whether Hawley and Chertoff are indeed idiots. The detailed inspection of passports by airport screeners is just more evidence affirming that they are idiots.

asnovici

But but but... they are my favorite TSA agents ever! They bring me joy and laughter every time I pass through that checkpoint (once a week).

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...hlight=acrylic

Haveaniceday

[QUOTE=FWAAA;9367609]

I've got a better idea: adopt the methodology used by Immigration. Look at it and swipe it and keep the lines moving.

QUOTE]

Great idea. Now all they need is some electricity at the ticket/document checking area for those readers. That would be much easier then using the lights and lupes on U.S. passports.

Haveaniceday

deleted

MSY-MSP

[QUOTE=Cee;9367527]
Ok, you might be right that they don't take away passports per se. However, if you find a passport that looks, let say odd (e.g. heavy use or something like that), that makes you question something about the document, what is the procedure. My understanding is that it is not given back to the person presenting the ID. At this time isn't it up to TSA what to do with ID. (I assume that you call a LEO, and pass it to them) However, it is TSA that has "taken it away". Now I have heard instances where a LEO questions a document as well (NEXUS, CANPASS, and odd ball (i.e. not a DL or Millitary) government ID's), and asks for another, lets the person go but keeps the questionable document until such time as the document can be verified as authentic. In this case with your passport (if that is the document) the odds of you ever seeing it again are slim and none.

Ari

Why would heavy use be "odd" or cause one to question the validity of a passport?

I know several people with double-annexed passports, many of which feature a homeresque butt-like curvature due to frequently being stored in a rear pocket. Is that odd too?

Ari

It is an OCR stripe, not a magnetic stripe.

Flaflyer

True, plus the new passports can also have a "RFID Read" or whatever the proper term is for interrogating and receiving from your new little blue cover mobile personal info transponder.

Cee

[QUOTE=MSY-MSP;9368339]That is a tough question, because I don't want to cross the line into SSI. I can tell you that I haven't had to make a LEO call on a passport, or turn one over to a LEO for the examples that you have given above. I have had screeners bring an I.D. to me because they have questioned it, but it has never resulted in a LEO call. What a LEO does with a questionable I.D., I have no idea. I know this doesn't help you much, sorry to be so vague.

studentff

Appreciate the sentiment, but actually I'd rather they not swipe anything.

TSA/DHS badly wants to keep dossiers of our domestic travel history for use in data-mining our associates, homes, destinations, etc. (i.e., "secure flight" derivatives) so that they can have even more false positives that harass even more innocent US citizens. There's no reason to make it that easy for them to do so.

DevilDog438

This is the exact reason why I will not use the CO PDA-based BP option (being tested now in IAH), since it requires allowing that information to be scanned by TSA at the CP.

PhlyingRPh

I thought they already had this information.

Flaflyer

So you're running late, your BP is on your Phone which you have to turn off before flight, the line is long and just as you get to TSA BP Check your battery dies. Go back to the counter and get a paper pass? You just missed your flight. No thanks to Living Electronically on this dumb idea.

Besides, without a paper BP, how can all the TSA Scribblers with highlighters, sharpies and colored pencils circle all those important BP things like your gate and destination city? They'll go postal with nothing to scribble on.

essxjay

Uh, jargon check for the benefit of our studio audience, MSY-MSP: What agency is the ICS?

INS = Immigration and Naturalization Service
CBP = Customs and Border Protection
ICE = Immigration and Customs Enforcement
ICS = ???

lianluo

Thanks, I thought I was the only person who had no clue!