I'm a frequent flyer, however this will be my first time not taking a direct flight to my final US destination from Europe.
My question is: Do I have to retrieve my luggage and check-in again for a connecting flight when arriving at my first port of entry into the United States???

just to clarify, i have purchased the following ticket from Milan to L.A. and my itinerary is the following MXP -> JFK -> LAX.
JFK would be my first port of entry in the US, although my real destination is LAX. It would be very worrying if I had to retrieve my baggage and re-check it in order to catch my connecting flight to los angeles (same carrier). not to mention that the connecting time is already tight enough. Moreover I assume that minimum connection times published by us carriers for Interantional to domestic connections do not take into account the time necessary to clear immigration (I understand that this would need to be cleared too at my first port of entry into the US).
can anyone help me out with this??? @:-)

Thank you soo much in advance