LessO2

1. It's a loaded question. I have learned in this forum that any answer always gets challenged. Always. Getting your head bit off for giving the direct answer, let along a simple viewpoint gets tiresome.

2. Let Customs and Immigration do their thing. When their procedures affect the airline's bottom line, let the airline handle that.

3. Why don't you ask a CBP Officer while you are waiting in line to use the phone and explain why. Heck that person might even escort you to the front of the line.

alanR

Many Americans think that the guy fiddling with your passport is "Customs" - thus the common question of "how long does it take to get through Customs at Heathrow" to which the reply is "20 seconds, 30 if you have a limp".

Flahusky

Not parts, all areas.
As is any area within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders.

studentff

The rule is a power trip, plain and simple. It gives CBP (or whatever they call themselves these days) the ability to control passengers' access to information, and to threaten/intimidate them if they violate the rules. Limiting access to information makes sheeple more compliant. It reduces accountability for the CBP employees because they can't be filmed or have their actions reported first-hand in real time which aides their ability to act with impunity.

As for why people get annoyed, IMO law-enforcement types and their apologists often become annoyed when the power-tripping nature of so many of their actions is pointed out. If you get these people to talk honestly (maybe after a few beers), many would say they wish cell phone and cameras banned outright. How many times have cops been caught in public places (illegally) trying to confiscate cameras from bystanders, force people to stop filming, or using a wall of cops or police horses to block public view of their actions? How often are police punished for this behavior? (answer: rarely if ever)

I'm sure that at some point in the distant past there was an articulable reason for the no camera/phone rule, though it may have been a local/special case. In an era where high-quality cameras and phones were not ubiquitous, someone possibly surveilling the immigration/customs hall and passing on information to an associate via a phone or 2-way radio probably seemed genuinely suspicious. But then it got morphed into a way to exercise power over the people, as so many things do.

As with most power tripping rules, the people who are hurt the most are law-abiding innocents. Any credible criminal would use hidden cameras, earpieces, and/or texting under their coat or in their pocket, to conceal their activity. But your average traveler trying to rebook a flight or warn his ride that he's late gets yelled at and screwed.

One of the key ways to know that a policy is a power trip is that you can never get a straight answer as to the purpose or that the answers make no logical sense. I've heard everything from "you could use your phone to detonate a bomb in your checked luggage" (you could also use a pocket detonation switch, or use the phone while still on the plane, have an accomplice not on the plane who performs the deed after he sees the plane land, etc.) to "you could steer a drug-carrying accomplice away from dogs or other law-enforcement operations" (which could also be accomplished using a messenger, or hand signals, or many other means) to other nonsense answers or the total inability to answer. I've never observed or heard of an airline enforcing this silly rule on their aircraft either. They will announce that you can't use your phone in the arrivals hall but have no problems with using it during taxi in, or before deplaning during the era when taxi-in phone use was disallowed.

I would have no problem with a rule restricting casual camera/phone use when actually at the passport-control desk or interacting with customs, primarily because it's rude to delay those behind you, but also because that's where any sensitive information might be. Or with extending that rule to the first 3 or so people at the head of the queue.

But everything else is a power trip.

NotaCriminal

I must have missed the head-biting, the loaded question(s) and the like in the OP's question or the followup questions. But I'm no brain surgeon, so missing something is of little surprise.

As to Response No. 3 - I have asked. While I'm not a brain surgeon and didn't stay at a Holiday Inn Express, I'm not a complete moron incapable of making a request. For the record, on both occasions, the request to call the airline or text the pickup went over as well as asking TSA to skip to the front of the line because one is late for a flight. Not that it will stop me from asking if the future, or that others shouldn't consider asking for themselves.

I, speaking obviously for myself only, simply posted a reason why I personally would like to be able to use a phone occasionally and that I would like to know why the rule is as it stands, etc, too. I do hope someone with actual CBP knowledge might be able to explain.

mahohmei

I can think of only one reason to prohibit cell phones in Customs: the same reason they're not allowed at the counter at the Post Office. People who talk on cell phones tend to pay attention to nothing else, and they don't want anyone holding up the line, and they don't want to have to compete with your phone for attention when it's your turn.

Same reason cell phones have to be turned off during taxiing. If a tire catches fire and they have to evacuate the plane, the flight crew don't want to have to rip your phone out of your hand to get your attention.

Wiirachay

I actually have objections to such a policy at the post office - if that were law as opposed to a request common courtesy for USPS employees and customers waiting in line.

The legitimate reason why I think cell phones in customs / immigration is prohibited is to prevent communication between passengers who may be conspiring to bring in illegal materials or entering the country illegally. People can scout out which immigration officers or customs officers are lax or clueless and conspire. Although there are other avenues to do it, it's just one layer of precaution.

As much as I don't like government agencies, I support this one - although I may not support how people are treated when it's enforced. Yes: "Sir, please turn off your phone until you leave the processing area. If it's urgent, please let me know your situation." No: "Turn it off now because I say so, citizen."

GUWonder

Is a "rule" against such cell phone use explicitly noted as an administrative rule published in the Federal Register and memorialized in some CFR, or is it explicitly noted in some Congressionally-passed standing legislation signed by the POTUS?

You failed to answer my question, but the above misdirection is amusing anyway.

magiciansampras

^

Pluma

I did a quick Google and found this:
http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/...smuggling.html

It is to prevent arriving passengers from having communications with a corrupt immigration official. I assume this was a method that incoming bad guys used to talk with the corrupt officer to find out what booth he was at, and then somehow go to that booth.

My other guess was that cellphones are prohibited in prisons, and CBP wanted arriving passengers to have the experience that they were prisoners.

gj83

I met some elderly Americans in DUB who said they had to go through Customs twice on their way to DUB...once in Ft. Myers and once in Newark. They meant TSA.

Dovster

I have never seen a line at Customs in the U.S. You get your bags, you hand in your landing card, and if they want to check what you have they do. If they are checking one person they generally let everyone else through.

yyzvoyageur

There have been cases where entertainers who were denied entry to Canada because of lengthy and violent criminal histories surreptitiously used their mobile phones to take photos of the officers who sent them home. In one recent case, the photo was posted to several fan websites in the form of a lightly veiled death threat.

bocastephen

It's OK, you can use the term 'rap artist'

I won't argue the rule about phone use in the customs hall, but I've heard examples from people where they were told *while onboard* the arriving aircraft they must not use their cell phone while onboard, while walking to customs, in the inspection hall - basically no phones until clearing inspection.

I would not hesitate to ignore such an order given on board or while walking TO the inspection hall in the US or Canada. While in another country, that's another story - depends on the country.

studentff

If that were the real reason, it would be much more effective to prohibit the officers from having cell phones in their booths and do 100% monitoring or recording of their wired phones and/or 2-way radios. It's much easier to root out one corrupt officer among a staff of a few dozen (or even hundred) than to root out one corrupt passenger among tens or hundreds of thousands.

It's a power trip. That's the real reason.