Homeboy walks off the plane from Taiwan at San Francisco International
Airport, waits in line and hands me his passport, I-94 and Customs
Declaration. He looks like a middle-aged middle manager. I look at his
passport – it’s from Taiwan – and think “another business traveler for
nine days”. I run his name and don’t come up with anything interesting in
the computer.

“Why are you coming to the United States,” I ask.

“I’m going on vacation.”

“For how long will you be in the U.S.?”

“Five months.” That a hell of a vacation.

“Do you have family in the United States.”

“No.”

“When was the last time you came to the U.S.?”

“Five months ago.”

“Why did you come last time?”

“I was on vacation.”

“How long did you stay.”

“I don’t remember exactly.” I don’t believe you.

I give him my “don’t give me that noise” look, sigh, look down at his
passport and shake my head disappointedly. I flip though his passport
reading the stamps. Taiwan is one of those cooperative countries that
stamps you going out as well as going in. This makes it easy to tie exits
from one country to entries in another.
“All right, look: You left Taiwan on.. and entered the U.S. on… You left
the U.S on… and entered Taiwan on…” I read his travel dates to him
fluently, flipping back and forth through the pages with enough skill to
impress myself. “That a lot of vacation time. Where do you get the money.”
It’s not really a question.

“I work.”

“You work in the United States.”

Silence.

“Do you know that it is a serious crime to lie to a federal officer?”

Silence.

“Each time you enter the U.S. you stay for five months, each time you go
to Taiwan you stay for five days. Do you work in the United
States?”

He sees that the answer is implied. “Yes.”

Thank you. I sent him to Secondary as a 7A – immigrant without visa – and
the notation that he had admitted as much on primary.
“Go to secondary, please… NEXT passenger!”

Nobody said anything about it but I checked the computers later. My first
catch.