Originally Posted by
Captain Schmidt
Actually, that depends... For someone British like myself, yes we distinguish between "immigration" and "customs", however our American friends use the term "customs" to mean both - CBP is the federal agency tasked with securing the US borders. CBP = Customs and Border Patrol which tends to end up getting shortened in every day speak to "customs".
Even in the US Immigration and Customs are two separate steps. First one goes through immigration (what we would call passport control) then one claims the luggage and goes through customs. In the old days the green form had to be handed to the immigration officer, the blue form had to be handed to to customs officer. In America, of course both steps have to happen at the same airport, therefore the luggage can't be checked through.