Inside our border's first line of defense

Chris Hansen Correspondent • Profile

At New York’s J.F.K. Airport, about 30,000 international travelers a day are processed by Customs and Border Protection officers.

They are guardians who have just minutes to detect the fugitive, the smuggler, or terrorist who is trying to enter the United States illegally, salted within this ever-changing crush of passengers.

The hard part for CBP officers, of course, is finding out who they are.

Take this gentleman with his back to the camera, for instance. He's well dressed, middle-aged, not somebody who would stick out in a crowd of travelers. But for a veteran Customs and Border Protection officer, something about the passenger just doesn't add up.

Officer Tommy Varsamas (on the job 9 years): This man arrived from Ghana today, coming for a vacation … I noticed he’s been here a lot and I started talking to him about his previous trips. And his answers just did not make any logical sense to me, I just couldn't follow him.

So officer Tommy Varsamas brought him into an area known as "hard secondary" for further questioning.

Varsamas: Is this yours?

Ghanan passenger: No.

Varsamas: So why do you have it in your bag?

Ghanan passenger: I just picked it up.

Varsamas: This is somebody's ID card.

Varsamas: When I can't comprehend the answer, something is wrong.

Varsamas: So tell me what is this you didn't tell me.

Ghanan passenger: It’s a receipt. An invoice receipt.

Varsamas: Well, what did you buy?

Ghanan passenger: Maybe it’s a phone.

Varamas: Maybe it’s a phone?

Officer Varsamas: So, I was telling him, listen you're a very smart man. You're older than me and you're and I told him, you are smarter than me, you are very crafty your words. But something just doesn't feel right with you.

Varsamas: When were you going back to Accra?

Ghanan passenger: The reservation I got is uh…

Varsamas: I see you looking at the date on that.

Ghanan passenger: No, no, no.

Officer Varsamas learns the man has been traveling in and out of the United States -- ostensibly for business -- since the early '90s. His last visit lasted several months.

Varsamas: Tell me more about your business trip. You spent five months doing some sort of mysterious business. I don't understand. Explain it to me.

Ghanan passenger:(no answer)

Varsamas: He attempted to explain to us his purpose here.

Varsamas: So you're telling me that you came here and bought something and sold it?

Ghanan passenger: Back home.

Varsamas: OK. What did you buy?

Ghanan passenger: A car, you mean?

Varsamas: A car?

Ghanan passenger: Yeah.

Varsamas: How many?

Ghanan passenger: Two of them.

Varsamas: OK, what kind of cars?

Ghanan passenger: A Honda and a uh...

Varsamas: What year was the Honda?

Ghanan passenger: 2002.

Varsamas: And how much did you pay for it?

Ghanan passenger: A thousand, two hundred.

Varsamas: Was the car stolen? They're usually more expensive.

Varsamas: It's a very good price for a Honda.

Ghanan passenger: Very much wrecked.

Varsamas: A wrecked car?

Varsamas: Under oath we have him saying that he came to buy two cars. He paid I think it was $1200, which is amazing for a 2002 Honda.

Varsamas: And how much does it cost to send it back to Ghana?

Ghanan passenger: Uh, a friend offered this thing onto his freight.

Varsamas: And he had it shipped for free back to Ghana and the man who had shipped the car, he doesn't recall his name, was a friend of his. Didn't know the phone number. This is all amazing stuff and highly unbelievable.

Varsamas: When was the last time you spoke to this guy who ships cars back to Ghana for free for you?

Officer Varsamas's inquiries are met with either silence or confusing spin. There's one question, however, that gets quite a reaction.

Varsamas: And when I asked him about it, he almost fainted. He just froze.

LAX: International arrivals

Across the continent, at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Customs and Border Protection officers process close to 9 million passengers a year. It’s a number so large that if they all came at once, the line would stretch all the way back to JFK.

The bulk of the international flights here are inbound from Asia and Latin America.

Right now, it's a flight from Guadalajara, Mexico, and two passengers in particular that have come to the attention of CBP officers.

Officer 1 on telephone: The two passengers are both males … OK. So, they are coming to pick it up? OK, thank you. Bye bye.

Officer 2: How many are there?

Officer 1: Two.

Officer 2: There's two.

Officer Jeff Garneau: They've been patted down. All of their bags have been checked.

Their visas check out, but both men stayed longer than legally allowed on previous trips. A minor offense, but it raises a number of bigger questions: What did they do when they were last here? How did they support themselves?

Jeff Garneau: They both have visitor visas, visas that allow them to come into this country. But not to live here, work here and get paid here.

Working in the United States would have serious consequences: immediate deportation.

Bruce Mulraney (Section Chief, Passport Control, 16 years experience): They will undergo what's known as a secondary inspection to determine admissibility. Officers will interview them. Place them under oath. Take a sworn statement. Exact the particulars to establish their identity … Right now they're just waiting to be interviewed. We don't have very good facilities for holding people for any length of time. But we provide some creature comforts. There is a television, we have food stuffs, both snack items, hamburgers, that sort of thing. This is an unpleasant experience for both the traveler and the officer. So we try to minimize the unpleasantness.

As they wait to be interrogated, one of the men holds up pictures of his daughter, who, he says, is a U.S. citizen. She's in the terminal, just a few hundred yards away, waiting for him. The man asks if he can see her.

Chief Gamez: They want to know if they can come in just for, to visit for a little bit, because he has a daughter.

Bruce Mulraney: I don't think so.

Officer Grant: He told me that he came in, that today his intention is to celebrate his birthday, which is March 2, and he's going to stay only for three weeks. I don't believe him.

Officer Brenda Grant, Port enforcement team (on the job 5 years): I’m going to interview him in Spanish and we're going to determine if he is admissible or not. I want him to tell me the truth. 99% they will not say the truth.

(translation from Spanish)

Grant: Is this the first time in the United States?

Passenger: No.

Grant: How many times have you come?

Passenger: About seven times.

Grant: Seven times? And what have you come for in the last times?

Passenger: I come to bring money to ... I have a daughter.

Grant: Why have you come now?

Passenger: Now, to visit, to be with my daughter.

Grant: Are you in possession of return tickets to your country?

Passenger: Yes.

Grant: You have a ticket to return to your country?

Passenger: Oh, if I have purchased a return ticket? No.

Grant: No? How much money do you have?

Passenger: About $110.

Grant: $110?

Little money. No return ticket. Officer Grant has heard enough. She's convinced the man is not just here to visit his daughter but to work illegally in the United States.

She discusses his case with fellow officers.

Officer Grant: He's just trying to evade the real truth.

Officer 2: Did he say he had any family here?

Officer Grant: Yeah, he has an aunt here.

Officer 2: That's it?

Officer Grant: And his girlfriend.

Officer 2: That's his brother.

Officer Grant: You see, he's lying.

Officer 2: I told you.

Officer Grant: he's lying. His brother just called. And he left a phone number where he said to return his phone call. So he has a brother by the name, Juan. Juan. And he didn't tell me. We have to confront him and we'll see how far he will go with the truth.

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