CBP SECONDARY-INSPECTION AND TECS RECORDS
CBP maintains inspection and enforcement records in systems that include TECS. Those records can contain officer narratives and other information concerning border interactions, secondary inspection and enforcement-related circumstances. A traveler can request responsive CBP records through FOIA.
DHS describes TECS as maintaining CBP-owned records used to provide a record of inspections conducted at the border, determine admissibility and document enforcement-related events.
TECS is not merely a list of removal orders. CBP uses the system as part of the broader border-inspection and enforcement process.
DHS TECS documentation describes subject records as including, among other things, a CBP officer narrative concerning an interaction between CBP and a person.
A targeted FOIA request can be easier to process and more likely to locate the relevant incident. CBP currently directs requesters to provide dates, locations and other details that identify the requested records.
A request can specifically seek records regarding the inspection or examination, secondary inspection, TECS inspection or enforcement records, officer narratives, and any forms generated during the encounter.
FOIA contains exemptions that can permit agencies to withhold or redact qualifying material, including certain law-enforcement information. A released CBP record may therefore contain redactions or withheld pages.
A redacted response does not necessarily mean that no additional government information exists.
FOIA is used to obtain responsive records. DHS TRIP is a redress process for certain recurring travel-screening or inaccurate-information problems.
A prior officer narrative or enforcement record may help explain repeated secondary inspection, a later visa problem or questions that recur at future ports of entry.
Yes. CBP expressly identifies records regarding inspections and secondary inspections at ports of entry as CBP FOIA records.
DHS TECS documentation specifically describes CBP officer narratives concerning interactions with individuals as a type of subject record.
Not necessarily. FOIA exemptions can result in redactions or withholding of qualifying information.
These government materials provide the principal CBP records and FOIA procedures discussed on this page.
The actual officer narrative and secondary-inspection records can be much more useful than trying to reconstruct a years-old border encounter from memory.