I am really interested in hearing the logic (from a security point of view) of the transit system for international/international flights in the US.
I've just flown CDG - LAX - YVR. On arriving at LAX I had to go through US immigration (all I had to write on my visa waiver form was "in transit to Canada") whereupon my passport was stamped into the US. I then had to pick up my luggage (even though it had been checked all the way through from CDG to YVR). So here I am in possession of a stamped passport and with all my bags... What's to stop me just staying in the US? More worryingly for the US, what's to stop any ill intentioned potential illegal immigrant doing exactly the same thing?
Obviously I just put my bags back in at the interline desk and hopped over to departures to go back through all the security screening process. But it left me thinking..
Wouldn't it be easier just to keep int/int transit passengers airside like most European countries do?
Saves the passenger all that immigration rigmarole and saves the immigration officers all that work.