garykung

Sure - you can't tell CBP in advance. But you can prepare in advance, i.e. have a fully filled FinCEN Form 105 ready.

When you have the FinCEN Form 105 ready, CBP is likely not giving you additional trouble.

GUWonder

Likely? Who knows. It's certainly possible that the submission of the forms can come with additional trouble even if the forms are accurately filled and submitted by the passenger for every relevant trip the passenger takes. In other words, a passenger's life may be so much easier when a passenger never has a legal need to file that form. If you can avoid traveling with so much currency and other instruments that trigger such a declaration requirement, it may be a good idea to try to travel without them. Unfortunately, even as the need for international passengers to carry cash and near equivalents declines, CBP doesn't necessarily seem to ease off on the fishing expedition aimed at people departing the US.

garykung

You are correct...in a perfect world. Nevertheless, there are still people who do that, giving excuses to CBP to do this and that.

nas6034

It seems the conversation has steered from domestic to international. Didn’t the CBP agree to stop questioning on a domestic flights? Or was it only for domestic inbound flights with outbound flights still open season? I do wonder how this would apply to inbound flights from preclearance stations.

Boggie Dog

Good point. Under what authority can CBP interrogate passengers on domestic only flights? Can a person choose not to play the game and walk past the CBP officer?

TWA884

Folks,

As @nas6034 and @Boggie Dog have noted above the topic of this thread is screening in the jet bridges of passengers departing on domestic flights. While some natural deviation form the subject of the thread is acceptable, please let's keep the focus of the discussion on passengers departing on domestic, not international, flights. If you want to discuss searches of passengers departing on international flights, we have at least one thread with recent activity on that subject. Please post your concerns and opinions about searches of departing international passengers there.

Future off-topic posts will be summarily deleted without further warning!

Thank you for understanding,

TWA884
Travel Safety/Security com-moderator

HkCaGu

DTW is in the border zone, just like SAN, BUF, ELP, etc. That’s why they can ask questions.

muji

Most Americans live within the "Constitution-free zone".

https://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-ju...-zone-20180323

HkCaGu

Please don’t quote this junk map. It may be theoretical, but in practice CBP does not have secondary checkpoints based on the coasts. Only the northern and southern border zones. There are no checkpoints going from L.A. to Las Vegas, nor questioning at SEA, SFO or LAX going inland.

mauve

You know, two things stand out to me: what is CBP going to do if they find someone with medical marijuana or too much cash?

I assume they’re trolling for civil forfeiture? It isn’t technically illegal to travel domestically with cash, and I can’t imagine that federal prosecutors are interested in prosecuting for a joint or ounce here or there. They could refer to the local authorities, but Michigan has a MMJ law.

GUWonder

BUF is where I’ve most commonly encountered CBP screening for domestic flights, but it’s been more commonly at the line leading up to the TSA ID checker just before the screening machines than at the gate. And then it’s usually a question about citizenship for me. My response is American/US and then that’s been the end of it with CBP for me when flying domestically.

saxman66

This must be the 100 mile within borders thing. CBP supposedly has jurisdiction within 100 miles of the international borders and can stop and ask questions to anyone in this region. Whether or not this is constitutional is a whole other debate. They often do this on Amtrak trains and buses too. I've heard lots of stories of them boarding trains in Buffalo, NY so them being in the airport is no surprise. This is the first I've heard of them being in DTW though. I was staying Tucson for a couple of days and made a trip down to Tombstone, AZ, which is a small little tourist town close to the border. We had to go through a checkpoint and were asked if we were US citizens. I really wanted to say it's none of their business, but I relented and said yes.

CZBB

There was an attempt a couple of years back to board a greyhound from Bakersfield to Vegas, and a well informed passenger politely told them to <redacted>.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/immigrants...-forced-border

RastaPasta

He did not ask for identification, as I entered the jetway the agent was standing there, I saw his badge and gave him a nod. He then said "Excuse me Sir can you show me your boarding pass" and then attempted to say my complicated last name before commencing with the questions. He also asked if I packed my own bag (first question) and if anyone had given me anything to take on board. I answered all his questions with very short answers - yes/no, visiting my dad, stayed in city X, etc.

For the record I am a white male and fairly clean cut, although I hadn't shaved in a few days. While the narcotics question I'm sure was more for interrogatory purposes, I have a hard time believing they would charge me with possession if I had a small personal amount of MJ since they probably have bigger fish to fry. In fact, you can no longer even schedule Global Entry interviews at LAX because all resources had to be diverted to the "border crisis" . I am thinking perhaps the flight either originated or ended at some foreign point and maybe that is why they screen that one. I have taken other DTW>LAX flights at different times and never seen agents in the jetway.

Collierkr

Your reference talks about DEPLANING, whereas the OP is talking about at time of boarding. Two different things and not sure the boarding piece has been found to be out of line.