"Countries visited on this trip prior to U.S. arrival"
Jul 12, 2015, 7:21 am
#32
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 288
This can be viewed as entrapment, lets say you visit Cuba without a Treasury licence or a valid licence exemption. If you do not list Cuba you have made a false declaration to CBP. If you list Cuba you have admitted to a crime.
Of course, the Cuba travel issue should be "fixed" in the next few years. Also as far as I know the US government does not prohibit travel to any other nations. But I am sure there are other cases where this could be entrapment for some.
Of course, the Cuba travel issue should be "fixed" in the next few years. Also as far as I know the US government does not prohibit travel to any other nations. But I am sure there are other cases where this could be entrapment for some.
So with respect to Cuba, American travellers who are known to have visited Cuba are routinely subjected to questions about "who paid for your trip?" Unfortunately, the majority of them allow themselves to be browbeaten into making some admission that they spent money there, and it is this self-incrimination that is used to asses a fine against the traveller.
So you are partly correct -- if you go to Cuba, you must list it on your form or risk prosecution for perjury. My routine response to any and all questions posed by US customs and immigration is that "I decline to orally amend the written customs declaration you have in front of you, which I fully and truthfully completed and signed under penalty of perjury" As i have posted elsewhere in this forum, I have had customs agents make all sorts of false and misleading statements about their authority at the border ("the Constitution doesn't apply here because you haven't entered the United States yet"; hmm, yes, well "if I 'haven't entered the United States,' then how is it you have any authority here?"), but the fact is the 5th Amendment protection against self-incrimination, along with the rest of the US Constitution, the United States Code and all treaties etc to which the USA is a party -- with a VERY small, VERY limited exception to some parts of the 4th Amendment's prohibitions against search without a warrant -- are in FULL force at the border.
Last edited by Blogndog; Jul 12, 2015 at 7:33 am
Jul 14, 2015, 7:53 pm
#33
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Northern Nevada
Programs: DL,EK
Posts: 1,652
Jul 14, 2015, 11:22 pm
#34
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 580
To get back to the earlier discussion about having to reclear security upon arrival to the US...Actually, it seems that there would be an easy way to change the setup so that arriving passengers would not have to clear security upon arrival to the U.S. because of having contact with their checked luggage (of course, perhaps the security staff of other countries is not trusted, but this is a different issue).
At some pre-clearance airports, one does not have access to one's checked bag and instead, looks at a picture of one's bag on a computer screen upon arrival to verify that the picture is of the traveler's bag. Except for cases of secondary inspection, the passenger never has contact with his or her bag at Customs. It seems that this type of situation could easily be setup for Customs in non-preclearance airports. Perhaps there could be two lanes, one for passengers arriving to their final destination who would pick up their bag and one lane for passengers who are connecting to another flight who would instead look at a picture of their bag. A barrier could be put in place to prevent passengers from switching lanes.
In the case of a secondary inspection, the agent could tell the passenger that he or she is not allowed to touch the contents of his or her bag (with only the customs agent being allowed to do so) which would thus prevent the passenger from potentially being in contact with items not allowed in the secured area. Or it could be setup where only connecting passengers who are sent to secondary inspection have to reclear security.
At some pre-clearance airports, one does not have access to one's checked bag and instead, looks at a picture of one's bag on a computer screen upon arrival to verify that the picture is of the traveler's bag. Except for cases of secondary inspection, the passenger never has contact with his or her bag at Customs. It seems that this type of situation could easily be setup for Customs in non-preclearance airports. Perhaps there could be two lanes, one for passengers arriving to their final destination who would pick up their bag and one lane for passengers who are connecting to another flight who would instead look at a picture of their bag. A barrier could be put in place to prevent passengers from switching lanes.
In the case of a secondary inspection, the agent could tell the passenger that he or she is not allowed to touch the contents of his or her bag (with only the customs agent being allowed to do so) which would thus prevent the passenger from potentially being in contact with items not allowed in the secured area. Or it could be setup where only connecting passengers who are sent to secondary inspection have to reclear security.
Jul 15, 2015, 6:03 am
#35
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: NYC
Programs: DL PM, Marriott Gold, Hertz PC, National Exec
Posts: 6,737
To get back to the earlier discussion about having to reclear security upon arrival to the US...Actually, it seems that there would be an easy way to change the setup so that arriving passengers would not have to clear security upon arrival to the U.S. because of having contact with their checked luggage (of course, perhaps the security staff of other countries is not trusted, but this is a different issue).
At some pre-clearance airports, one does not have access to one's checked bag and instead, looks at a picture of one's bag on a computer screen upon arrival to verify that the picture is of the traveler's bag. Except for cases of secondary inspection, the passenger never has contact with his or her bag at Customs. It seems that this type of situation could easily be setup for Customs in non-preclearance airports. Perhaps there could be two lanes, one for passengers arriving to their final destination who would pick up their bag and one lane for passengers who are connecting to another flight who would instead look at a picture of their bag. A barrier could be put in place to prevent passengers from switching lanes.
In the case of a secondary inspection, the agent could tell the passenger that he or she is not allowed to touch the contents of his or her bag (with only the customs agent being allowed to do so) which would thus prevent the passenger from potentially being in contact with items not allowed in the secured area. Or it could be setup where only connecting passengers who are sent to secondary inspection have to reclear security.
At some pre-clearance airports, one does not have access to one's checked bag and instead, looks at a picture of one's bag on a computer screen upon arrival to verify that the picture is of the traveler's bag. Except for cases of secondary inspection, the passenger never has contact with his or her bag at Customs. It seems that this type of situation could easily be setup for Customs in non-preclearance airports. Perhaps there could be two lanes, one for passengers arriving to their final destination who would pick up their bag and one lane for passengers who are connecting to another flight who would instead look at a picture of their bag. A barrier could be put in place to prevent passengers from switching lanes.
In the case of a secondary inspection, the agent could tell the passenger that he or she is not allowed to touch the contents of his or her bag (with only the customs agent being allowed to do so) which would thus prevent the passenger from potentially being in contact with items not allowed in the secured area. Or it could be setup where only connecting passengers who are sent to secondary inspection have to reclear security.
For what it's worth, most of the big European and Asian airports rescreen passengers on arrival from international flights from at least some destinations.
For major European and Asian airports (LHR, CDG, FRA, NRT, SIN, etc.), there are a LOT of connecting passengers who are arriving from foreign country A, and connecting to a flight to foreign country B. That's a very small amount of traffic for US airports (non-zero, but not a lot). The vast majority of pax who fly from foreign airports into US airports are ending their trips at some location in the US.
Jul 16, 2015, 5:12 pm
#36
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
To get back to the earlier discussion about having to reclear security upon arrival to the US...Actually, it seems that there would be an easy way to change the setup so that arriving passengers would not have to clear security upon arrival to the U.S. because of having contact with their checked luggage (of course, perhaps the security staff of other countries is not trusted, but this is a different issue).
At some pre-clearance airports, one does not have access to one's checked bag and instead, looks at a picture of one's bag on a computer screen upon arrival to verify that the picture is of the traveler's bag. Except for cases of secondary inspection, the passenger never has contact with his or her bag at Customs. It seems that this type of situation could easily be setup for Customs in non-preclearance airports. Perhaps there could be two lanes, one for passengers arriving to their final destination who would pick up their bag and one lane for passengers who are connecting to another flight who would instead look at a picture of their bag. A barrier could be put in place to prevent passengers from switching lanes.
In the case of a secondary inspection, the agent could tell the passenger that he or she is not allowed to touch the contents of his or her bag (with only the customs agent being allowed to do so) which would thus prevent the passenger from potentially being in contact with items not allowed in the secured area. Or it could be setup where only connecting passengers who are sent to secondary inspection have to reclear security.
At some pre-clearance airports, one does not have access to one's checked bag and instead, looks at a picture of one's bag on a computer screen upon arrival to verify that the picture is of the traveler's bag. Except for cases of secondary inspection, the passenger never has contact with his or her bag at Customs. It seems that this type of situation could easily be setup for Customs in non-preclearance airports. Perhaps there could be two lanes, one for passengers arriving to their final destination who would pick up their bag and one lane for passengers who are connecting to another flight who would instead look at a picture of their bag. A barrier could be put in place to prevent passengers from switching lanes.
In the case of a secondary inspection, the agent could tell the passenger that he or she is not allowed to touch the contents of his or her bag (with only the customs agent being allowed to do so) which would thus prevent the passenger from potentially being in contact with items not allowed in the secured area. Or it could be setup where only connecting passengers who are sent to secondary inspection have to reclear security.
Jul 20, 2015, 9:34 am
#38
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: WAS
Programs: enjoyed being warm spit for a few years on CO/UA but now nothing :(
Posts: 2,509
