US outbound interrogation
 

Hi,
My wife left the country today to visit family, and when she called to let me know she arrived safely, she mentioned that everyone leaving was interrogated before being allowed in the boarding area by some U.S. customs or immigration officials. She was asked how much money she had. Where she was going/why/how long. How long had she been here. When did they start this? Next they are going to want DNA samples and 10 years of tax returns. Every country I have been to basically says "Welcome to <insert country here>, enjoy your stay". It has always been a pain to return to the US and go through customs, but now you can't even leave the U.S. without being harassed?

-z

What airport was this? What agency were they with? Was she going to Latin America? (My guess is they're trying to catch illegal immigrants returning home, as a great many have been doing lately.)

If it were USCIS or CBP, I'd refuse to answer their questions. If they were persistent, I'd have them speak with my attorney.

(Mods: should this be in Travel Safety/Security?)

Hmm... I don't have any direct experience with the interrogation, but I've only seen it happen to specific people leaving ORD. My experience runs as far as being asked by a CBP officer "Do you speak Chinese? English?" and then being asked to translate as he questioned someone on the jetway on the way to a United flight ORD-PVG. I remember it was a similar set of questions- how much money, how long they stayed in the US, what they did, why they're leaving. I thought at the time they did it when they were searching for something in particular; to do the same to everyone seems nuts, especially if they always have to do what they did when I was leaving and grab random pax to translate.

This was in Honolulu outbound to Asia. She didn't pay attention to which agency it was, but she said they were definitely US government and not security guards (like the ones that compare passport to ticket on the way in). They have always had officers poking around the boarding area, but this interrogation thing is new.

-z

TSA squad screens CO 62
 

A bit off-topic - apologies - but perhaps dimly related to the OP's incident. Last Friday boarding CO 62 (EWR-MAD) after having their boarding passes scanned at the gate, passengers were met at the top of the jetway by a squad (at least 5, perhaps more) of TSA professionals -- all male.

I was first onto the plane and only had to show my passport. Don't know what other passengers had to show or explain.

Had not seen this before. Possibly they were waiting for a specific passenger? These were TSA, not police.

May be it is part of the new financial package to stop the US dollars getting out of the country :rolleyes:

Never seen this in the last two months to Australia or Europe.

And what exactly would they do with these captured illegals trying to go home? Force them to stay?

I always enjoy the big talk on these topics. Talk to your attorney? What, as you try to reclaim the few hundred $$ the airline charges you to reschedule the flight you miss after arguing with the "officials" about whether you need council present to tell them where you live?

I've had a similar "interrogation" travelling ORD-LHR, ask a few questions and do a fingerprint scan (aus passport in US on VWP). Didn't bother me in the least and is really no different to the departure checks from most countries.

Yes, they could be fined or arrested - or at least have their overstay noted by USCIS.

And my only purpose for putting up a fight would be to make their lives difficult. I wouldn't argue with them long enough to miss my flight. (What I'm basically saying is that I don't think they'd detain me if I refused to answer, so I'd be obstinate about it. If they actually detained me I'd answer the questions.)

I had a flight out of ORD where TSA reexamined everyone's bags at the gate. Also, TSA once neglected to SSSS me at SEA despite the notation on my ticket; when the airline noticed they sent some TSA officers to the gate to rescreen me. This seems normal and is part of the "administrative screening" process.

Oh, I remember some sort of passport check when I flew HNL-AKL years ago. Not the interrogation, though. I thought it was weird...

US CBP sometimes does this on outgoing flights - they'll station themselves in the jetway and pull people aside, ask a few questions, and then grab another passenger, repeat process. Whether you're inspected seems random and depends on the # of CBP officers.

EDIT: As far as doing it to everyone, perhaps they were looking for a passenger of interest?

Bolding mine. That gave me a laugh :D

The more appropriate word here would be, um, monkeys.

Countries have an obligation to protect their economies and keep their citizens safe. One way to do this is to prevent unauthorized currency transfers by screening departing PAX. There are many other reasons to screen departing PAX (as mentioned by other posters above). It could also be that the outbound APIS manifest turned up something that required investigation, i.e. they were looking for a specific PAX.
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13F

They are Customs Guys checking Money Laundering Currency Movement.

Its happened to me twice in the US and Various Times from UK.