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[quote=Anonymous]I’m an American citizen who flew into IAD from a foreign country two weeks ago.  My flight arrived just behind one other, around midnight.

At IAD, you line up in an American citizens/ permanent residents or not American citizen/ permanent resident line. Which is standard. Here’s what was not standard: between the two lines of international flights, there were over 300 people. Approx 75% were in the American citizens line. They had 4 officers processing the foreign citizens and ONE OFFICER processing all of the American citizens.  After a half hour, the foreign citizens were all processed and those lines were closed, and those 4 officers left.  We were in the middle of the line for Americans, and it took us over 2 hours to get our passport stamped (almost 2 am).  And the ONE CBP agent processing Americans was ridiculously slow.  By the time we cleared immigration, our bags were off the carousel and sitting in a jumble of luggage and no one was staffing Customs (after you get your checked luggage) at all.

So, good time to smuggle contraband in checked baggage, I guess.

Why are foreign citizens being processed before Americans and much faster than Americans?  This was a flight from a touristy European County, without foreigners who should have posed a security risk.  Why were some Americans sitting in a 4 hour line during the slowest part of the day while one guy processed most of two planes?

The only answer that I can come up with is CBP is proving a point about how stretched thin they are. And that Americans standing in line for three or four hours in an otherwise empty hall to see the one CBP officer will start to say that these poor overworked souls need reinforcements. And make a fuss.

Sorry. No dice. They could have used 3-4 agents of the 5 working to process Americans (who again, were 75% or so of the arrivals).  And processed everyone in much less time. This was all about a CBP temper tantrum and CBP putting on a show. And not very well, because they clearly had the manpower to process foreigners in a timely manner.

BTW— they had also taken IAD off the list of airports using Mobile Pass— which is how I usually bypass these lines to being with. There are something like 15 airports that use it. Why not a major international airport like IAD.

And FWIW I think foreigners should be processed efficiently. But I think making Americans wait for hours is all about proving a point. Otherwise, why not put Americans First?[/quote]

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