Originally Posted by
fgirard
I was flying back to the to the US this afternoon on UA4 (LHR-IAH), and when we arrived, I went through the normal GE line, but at the exit from the GE kiosk area, there were 2 CBP officers, stopping everyone. When I got to one of the officers, he asked me:
- "Where are you coming from?" (London)
- "How long were you there?" (3 days)
- "What was the purpose of your visit?" (Visited friends)
- "What do you do for a job?" (Engineer)
- "Who do you work for?" (Livermore/Sandia National Laboratory)
- "What do you do there?" (I informed him that answering that would be leaking classified information)
After that, he let me pass, but it was all a really strange experience, because I have never been asked my job title and my employer. I am definitely reporting this to our DoD liaison tomorrow, but it's starting to make me think that when I travel, I should keep my technology to a minimum, or just not bring it.
Also, if they access a secured phone, and retrieve classified material, could the CBP officer get arrested for accessing classified equipment?
I've had similar questions coming back from Canada, asked very casually and when I told him my employer he followed up with a semi-relevant question. It was at preclearance in Montreal and the agent in question had been very obviously chatty already even to the other agents so it didn't seem particularly odd. Boredom as much as anything, and in the days before there were kiosks so a live person had to at least look at every passport.
If they ask for access to something that would give them access to classified information I'd guess you should tell them "sorry, no, you need permission from DOE (or whoever)"