Same number of agents at YTZ and IAD
 

So a good friend of mine flew up to Toronto last weekend, and flew back into IAD on Sunday night.

On his flight into Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, he reported zero wait time, four people working immigration, and a process that lasted perhaps 20-30 seconds. Then he was on his way to the moving walkway under the lake, and onto the Porter Bus.

I offered to pick him up on his return into Dulles, and headed out there for his arrival. Like most Porter LFO's, it was slightly delayed, but he got in at 755pm on Sunday evening, but didn't get out of Customs and Immigration until after 9pm. The line at customs took more than an hour, and there were only four agents working - the same number as had been working at Toronto's tiny city airport.

Our tax dollars at work.

I feel like DC sees a lot more traffic than Toronto... Oh, that was your point

Yep. Toronto City Airport (the little one down on the lake) has 72-seat Q-400's coming in. Dulles International Airport has wide-bodies from all over the world. Yet the same number of customs agents. Guess maybe they're concentrating their efforts on sexually assaulting outgoing passengers and therefore don't have enough manpower to handle people re-entering the country.

Aren't those functions handled by completely separate federal agencies, i.e. CBP vs TSA? Or am I misinterpreting something due to my lack of knowledge on international travel?

CBP and TSA are both part of DHS.

Yes, but they are different "agencies" under the same "department".

Yes. CBP is distinct from TSA/CATSA -- even at Canadian airports with US CBP PreClearance.

Arriving at IAD was a particularly miserable experience the last time I did it (this January). To be fair, part of that was having to wait for my entire flight (crew included) to disembark before they'd move the "mobile lounge", wasting about 30 minutes and ensuring that we all hit Customs in one big blob...

YTZ doesn't have preclearance, so there should be no US govt. presence there.
So the OP's friend cleared Canadian immigration and customs (CBSA) at YTZ, and then cleared US immigration and customs (CBP) at IAD on the way back. And the comment was that CBSA had as many immigration officers at YTZ as CBP had at IAD.
Not sure how the TSA enters the picture...

Because HomerJay said...

... and his reference to 'sexual assault' appeared to me to be a reference to TSA. Which confused me, since the discussion was about customs and immigration, so I asked, "Aren't customs and sexual assault handled by two different agencies, i.e. TSA and CBP?"

Billy Bishop doesn't have customs agents working there, unless that has changed VERY recently.

I'm pretty sure it does have customs agents: CBSA customs agents who process arrivals into Canada. What it doesn't have is US preclearance which would be handled by CBP customs agents.

You correct, I was referring to CBP when I said that, as I thought at the time that was the comparison.