Originally Posted by jjost1

Had a pretty similar situation, of which I would appreciate any feedback. My wife and I DID declare that we had food/fruit on our customs form at the Global Entry kiosk. We approached the customs officers at the secondary screening, and the customs officer quite literally was acting extremely playful and trying to be funny... he played around with our customs forms (kept dropping it on purpose and cracked jokes with us about it), and then said "whaddaya got and we'll get you outta here" -- casually joking with us.

We said we had some fruit and food, further clarifying that we had dates and baklava (as we just came back from a wedding in Dubai). They ran our bags and immediately slapped us with failure to declare a banana that we picked up at the Amsterdam airport during our layover.

Note: My wife and I are 30/31 years old caucasian citizens with US Passports. Mentioning this to the forum as we certainly wouldn't have been racially profiled.

My frustration lies here: (1) we did declare fruit and food--both on our customs form and verbally at the point of questioning, so this seems like a case of semantics. (2) we did not specifically say a banana, but this was largely due to the tone, playfulness, and all around demeanor of the customs agent who seemed like he wanted to get us processed as quickly as possible and caught us off guard. Again, we did say "fruit."

Upon screening our bags, the customs supervisor pressed us hard to pay the $500 fine. Similar to an earlier post, he used scare tactics to suggest that we might pay well in excess of multiple thousands of dollars for court fees if we appealed. I asked him to explain the recourse for not paying the fine and accepting a court date--he could not properly explain the process or the ramifications. He only read exactly what was on the infraction form and told us we should decide quickly and pay the $500.

Finally, I asked if I could call my brother-in-law who is also my lawyer. He denied me this request and told me I need to make a decision on the spot. At this point, we paid the $500 as we had no real alternatives aside from gambling on an appeal, a court date, and a potentially (and supposedly) hefty court fee.

Any suggestions on my options? I feel aggrieved, given that we did formally declare "fruit/food" on our form. I also feel aggrieved that we were pressed to pay the $500 fine and not allowed the opportunity to call our legal counsel.

I'm crossing my fingers that I have some options despite paying the $500 on the spot. Or did we sign those rights away?