That sounds like CBP -- it's not something I've ever seen TSA do.

Are you confident that it was TSA? If I'm headed for the exit at an airport, I am almost certainly not going to stop to talk to TSA staff, much less show them any documentation. If they don't like it, they can show me to the door. They have no authority to detain.

Seriously: Why would anyone think TSA has any authority to examine his paperwork after a flight?

We're talking international arrivals here. You won't be heading to the exit. First stop would be passport inspection.

We've had two posters now reporting TSA screeners are meeting arriving international aircraft. I just haven't noticed it. Have you?

This is almost certainly CBP. It's done as an anti-asylum measure.

Generally that is the reason; however, sometimes they are specifically looking for someone or some group.

A few problems with that scenario ...

• Moving through the aisles to that seat would be difficult ... usually, as soon as the plane stops, people jump up to get their bags out of the overhead bins and start crowding the aisles. And this happens independently of any admonitions from the flight crew to stay seated.
• Why assume that the person of interest is actually sitting in the seat they were assigned? If they're at all intelligent, they've probably traded seats with someone, or moved to an empty seat.
• In terms of "retrieval", I'm guessing that it's probably much easier to "detain" a subject in a jetway, where there's a decent amount of space available and the subject is already standing, rather than in an aircraft, where the subject may be three seats away from the aisle and unlikely to want to cooperate with those seeking to detain ...

This happened for me on the exact same flight about 10 days ago. Made everyone open up their passports and show them on the ramp going down to customs.

It was definitely not the TSA - it was Customs Agents. Black uniforms and guns.

I see this once or twice a year at ORD.

Please explain? anti-asylum measure?

FB

Customs Officers wear dark blue.

Sue me.

People who flush their passports on board and then arrive at passport control "undocumented," claiming to be from a country for which the USA offers asylum.

Happens more than you might think.

I have gone through federal SIDA training and can assure you that TSA staff does not have authorization to enter any airport jetway unescorted, much less one within a sterile international arrivals area. The OP must be referring to either CBP or ICE, both of which are federal law enforcement agencies charged with enforcing immigration/customs laws. On several occasions arriving from Europe, I have had to show my passport to ICE and/or CBP officers right at the door of the aircraft.

TSA is not a law enforcement agency, and has very few sworn LEOs on its payroll. TSA would not be conducting any checks within a sterile international arrivals area, because TSOs are not authorized to work in that area.

I am aware of how often it happens. It also doesn't change how the subject is processed by CBP. It doesn't matter if the subject is undocumented at the door to the aircraft, undocumentd in the jetway, or undocumented at the booth he no longer has a passport and is claiming asylum.

FB

TSA certainly can enter an airport jetway unescorted. You are correct they can not enter a Federal Inspection Area, which would most of the time include the jetways being used for international arrivals, unescorted or without the proper authorization.

FB

I am not trying to be smart. There was a time not to long ago that when filing a complaint you had to specify what color uniform the officer was wearing because there were three seperate agencies working that hall. It would be one of the only ways to track down who was responsible for the action.

FB

If he's undocumented at the door of the aircraft or jetway, CBP knows which flight he was on and what country it came from. If CBP has the flight manifest and has processed the other passengers, they should be able to identify him by the process of elimination.

Whereas if he turns up at the booth and claims to be on a different flight from a different place, probably using a false name, it becomes harder to sort out who he is.

Doesn't help if he destroys his passport after leaving the plane but before the CBP booth, of course.

I bag TSA (and occasionally CBP) for bone-headed moves, but this one sorta makes sense.

Okay, I need to respond. I am writing this from ORD. My gate is right next to the ORD-MUC flight on LH. Looking up from typing something else, I noticed two "agents" approaching the gate, not even two feet away from me. They were CBP agents, with guns, badges, the whole nine-yards - and their uniforms were black. Had I stared longer at them (and their uniforms), they probably would have thought I was a perv (no comments necessary from the regulars, please).

Definitely not blue, dark blue, dark, dark blue - black.

No one greeted us on our rtn to ATL in JAN from FCO Maybe we weren't special enough to warrant a visit.

Actually, I don't ever remember that being done coming back from a Western European country. Mainly Eastern and Southern ones, in my experiences.

Be thankful. As I was in C on the 747, I was one of the first dozen off. Even then there was a small line while they checked your passport and verified it was yours. You can imagine the line and backup when the other 200+ people in Y were coming out and lining up.