The Adventure of Arriving at Miami International Airport from a High Profiled Country

Going through Immigration and Customs at Miami International Airport after arriving from any European and other low profiled international counties is effortless for travelers. However, arriving from international high profiled countries such as Jamaica is an adventure in itself. As one waits to enter the slot to provide the Immigration Officer with his/her passport, one of the first annoying question to the traveler arriving from Jamaica is “Do you have any ackee?” The first thought that may come to mind would be, “Is this Immigration officer for real??!!” “Don’t they know by now that this is Miami - not Alaska, so ackee trees may be found in the backyard of many Jamaican houses or a can of ackee may be purchased at any of the local supermarkets!” Nevertheless, the next irritating question is “Are you bringing any white rum?” To that a general thought is, “Why? Are you looking to get a free bottle?” “Clamp!” the loud stamp is made into the passport, and it is returned to travelers so that they will go on to experience the next aggravation as they make their way to the customs area to claim their luggage. The rules for luggage is also different since the luggage of travelers arriving from high profiled countries encounters additional scrutiny, so the bags take a much longer time to be dumped onto the carousel. Prior to claiming bags on the carousel, some are opened and physically checked while others are sniffed out by the customs dogs. After obtaining the luggage, worries for some high profiled country travelers are still not over. After giving the declaration card to the Customs Officer, the same facetious question will be asked, “Where are you coming from?” A thought before responding would be, “If you take the time to read the Custom Declaration card, you would see the country of departure.“ Next questions, “Are you bringing any ackee”? “Are you bringing any rum?” At this point, one just plays along and goes through the repetitive nonsense. In fact, passengers from countries such as Jamaica should not even bother to leave the box blank to indicate that he/she is not carrying any food items since the Customs Officer will still beckon for the passenger to follow the line where the luggage needs to go through the luggage screening machine so that the contents may be scrutinized one more time. If the passenger is unlucky and singled out, a Customs Officer will even do a physical search of the luggage, take the passenger’s computer to a unknown area, and return with the computer without the courtesy of explaining why or what was done with the computer. Seasoned travelers from these high profiled countries are very cautious as they know too well the detailed scrutiny they will have to face upon arrival at Miami International Airport and quite possibly other major airports in the United States. Meanwhile passengers travelling from low profiled countries must be having a blast bringing in whatever illegal possessions they can since they know that there is not a chance in hell that Customs and Immigration will ever single them out for any type of inspections since they are blessed to have that “all American look”!