Americans arriving at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York from overseas soon will lose the luxury of the citizen bypass, in which those with valid passports were able to scoot past Immigration Service officers and submit their passports to the Customs officer who verifies their declaration and clears their luggage.
The bypass, which already has been phased out at several other U.S. airports where it was used through much of the `80s, was a big time-saver.
When we came home through Kennedy in March-we carried our luggage aboard- we walked straight through, barely pausing to present our declaration cards.
The end will begin at British Airways on May 1. The American Airlines terminal will be next, although Charles R. Troy of the local office of the Immigration and Naturalization Service said that date had not been set.
The remaining terminals for passengers coming from overseas, the International Arrivals Building, Pan American`s and Trans World Airlines`, will follow.
Both Troy and Verne Jervis, spokesman for the Immigration Service in Washington, said that the agency pledged that the change would not add to time getting through.
More help
Jervis said that additional immigration people would be put on the job, that machines were being installed to read recent passports electronically and that Customs would be speeding its procedures to compensate, particularly by checking passports and signing declarations while people are milling around before lining up.
In any case, American citizens with valid passports would use separate channels so they would not wait behind foreign travelers.
”We began citizen bypass because we did not have the personnel to do the job we are mandated to do,” Jervis said, ”which is to check every single person who enters the United States. We assigned the task to Customs, but now they are not in a position to do it anymore” with the expedited procedures.
Ernest Davis, chief of passenger processing for the Customs Service at Kennedy, said that the service was discussing with British Airways and American Airlines ways to pinpoint further high-risk passengers or flights for intense Customs inspection while speeding still more passengers through.
Davis would not use the word ”profile” to explain how high risks were determined-the Supreme Court has upheld the use of a ”drug courier profile,” but its application has brought criticism that the focus of the profile is racist. But Davis said that screening techniques had been developed.
Some of the techniques involve where the flight came from and who is aboard.
What arouses suspicion
A day spent observing Customs inspectors working at the International Arrivals Building showed what inspectors are alert for on each flight.
A Varig flight with a tour group that has gone to Antarctica is not very
”narcotics-sensitive.” A Lan-Chile flight from Santiago is normally a high risk.
On a Concorde flight, the emphasis is on seeking smuggled merchandise, not drugs. The Intergovernmental Commmittee for Migration, whose employees have permits to work in the Customs area, takes charge of a group of refugees from Rome, and merchandise smuggling is not a problem there.
Customs employees, both in and out of uniform, wander among the travelers as they line up. Sometimes they ask for the travelers` declaration and sign it immediately, sending them straight to the exit.
Plainclothes inspectors more often focus on people they have doubts about, displaying badges and asking the travelers to step to the counter and open luggage, and remove coats and jackets so they can be felt.
When luggage is opened, a first check determines if there is a false bottom. If so, luggage and owner are removed to another room immediately.
Using instinct
Diane M. Bossert, a senior inspector, said that when she uncovered smuggling, which she said had happened a fair number of times in her 20 years in the service, it was on the basis of instinct, ”something that I feel is not right” about the traveler.
Other inspectors concurred that most successful arrests arose from knowledgeable once-overs of those in line rather than tip-offs.
”For instance,” she said, ”when people bend over to pick their luggage off the belt, they usually bend from the waist. If they have a lot of stuff in their coat or clothes, they are stiffer and don`t bend right.”
Bossert was summoned by another inspector to look at a paper sack of jewelry; she has a ”small subspeciality” in gemstones, gained through geology study in college.
She concurred on the traveler`s evaluation and explained that over the years her estimates had proved off by not more than a few hundred dollars. Inspectors have various specialties, including language fluency.
The salami battle
With Alitalia and Iberia flights, the sausage battle begins. The list, by country of origin, of food products that are allowed in or are seized, forms an Agriculture Department manual two inches thick; most meats are not allowable.
The Agriculture inspectors, most of them biology, botany or zoology majors in college, do not like the task of taking away food brought in as a souvenir of a homeland, but feel strongly about halting foot and mouth disease and blocking the arrival of new pests that menace crops, such as the Mediterranean fruit fly.
One inspector asked an old man in Italian: ”Salami? Chestnuts? Grapes?
Olives? Snails? Fruit?” The old man said ”no” each time, but the first suitcase unlocked disclosed a hand-wrapped salami, which brought a chorus of
”oooohs” from the inspection team.
The inspector then showed him a slip with a Spanish and Italian warning of a fine, and asked about the next suitcase. When another salami appeared, he was fined $50. It would have been only $25 if he had not attempted to conceal the meat.
Sometimes big bags that rouse suspicions are run through a special X-ray machine where sausage links show up like something on a child`s cartoon show. Paul Sullivan, an Agriculture inspector, said that people would get through the process faster if they did not bring in any food at all.
Some foods are allowed
Because the foods of a few countries, but not fruits, are allowed, you may not want to be so austere: salmon from Ireland, for instance, poses no problem; hard cheeses, provided they contain no meat, are usually acceptable. Since expensive foodstuffs may be seized, do not bring them in; have a bill of sale indicating in English the country of origin and the contents, mark ”yes” to the question about food on your declaration, and pack it on top so you can get it out easily for inspection.
A summary of the rules is given in ”Travelers` Tips on Bringing Food, Plant and Animal Products Into the United States.” It is available free by phone, 301-436-8413, or by mail from the Agriculture Department Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Room G110, 6505 Belcrest Road, Hyattsville,
WHOM TO CALL
For airline complaints: U.S. Department of Transportation, 202-366-2220.
For suspect business practices: The Better Business Bureau, 312-444-1188
(inquiries) and 312-346-3313 (complaints); the Illinois Consumer Protection Office, 312-917-3000; Cook County States Attorney, 312-443-4600; and the Illinois Attorney General, 312-917-3580.
For travel complaints: American Society of Travel Agents, Consumer Affairs Department, 703-739-2782.
For U.S. State Department travel advisories: 202-647-5225.
