Originally Posted by
nachtnebel
sorry, I missed your question. It was when he was leaving this country to go to China. I'm not sure whether it was SFO or SJC--probably SFO. They profile Asians, and so they gummed onto him, as he's Chinese. "How much money are you carrying?" He showed them, and they started screaming at him: "you're lying. You have more than that. tell the truth" and so forth, interrogating him as if he were in jail, and they looked in his carry-on. Again, they did this to a middle-aged, respectable guy going to see his mother before she died. And she did pass away when he was there.
There is, or used to be, teams of Customs officers called CETs (Contraband Enforcement Teams), they be called something else these days. I saw them in Honolulu more than a couple of times, harassing Japanese tourists leaving for NRT and/or KIX. They tended to wear the 'subdued' uniform and patching. They would show up in the boarding area 30-40 min prior to boarding and 'randomly' jam up Japanese tourists, in particular asking about currency, which I thought odd esp since there are/were no casinos in Hawaii that I'm aware of. Guess they are working elsewhere now on outbound travelers.