Originally Posted by
poisson
So it's because your checked bag has to pass through customs with you?
Any reason they can't just automatically take your checked bag off the plane, scan it again, then move it to the next plane without the traveler having to touch it?
Seems like that could eliminate the TSA step as well.
It would shift the requirement to your final destination. Many (most) of those final destinations do not have customs staff to process your bags.
Some might only see a single international pax arriving in one day, perhaps less frequently. It's simply not financially feasible to provide CBP staffing at all those airports. CBP would insist on fully staffing for worst case scenarios, no matter how unlikely or costly.
I pointed out that this has occasionally been a real headache for pax. Your international flight gets diverted to Podunk, Mississippi because of weather. You land and sit for hours on the plane. Because there are no CBP facilities to process the pax, they're not allowed to deplane.
I'm not saying it's the best or only solution. I am just explaining why it is.
It's possibly the only reason the US doesn't have exit controls. That would require CBP staffing at every single commercial airport - or forcing everyone on a connecting flight to go through CBP at their connecting airport, an even bigger nightmare.