Finally, a new job for Reb (on one side or the other)
At Border, Customs Work Includes Taking a Lot of Bologna
Day-to-day reality for some border officers amid immigration crisis is far more mundane
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers routinely seize Mexican bologna that people try to smuggle into the U.S., including 14 rolls in November. PHOTO: U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION
Customs and Border Protection official Chad Gerber spends much of his time overseeing the hunt for dangerous products travelers try to sneak into the U.S. Among the most popular: Mexican bologna.
In November, his team in El Paso, Texas, seized 154 pounds of Mexican bologna in 14 frozen rolls hidden behind the back seat of a Chevrolet pickup. A CBP officer had spotted the tops of red packaging poking out.
“It’s hard to hide that much bologna,” said Mr. Gerber, one of the CBP’s top two agriculture officials in El Paso. He estimates he has seized thousands of pounds of Mexican bologna over his 21 years with agency.
Following department protocol, officers took the meat to a local incinerator and burned it, Mr. Gerber said.
Amid what officials have called an immigration crisis at the border, the day-to-day reality for some officers is often more mundane. It can involve interacting with people making legal drives back and forth for shopping trips and family visits, and officers looking for all sorts of forbidden fruit, dairy products and processed meat, just like at any other U.S. port of entry. The work of agriculture specialists like Mr. Gerber is a small but vital piece of the CBP workload at air, land and seaports as they root out dangerous products or pests before they make their way into the U.S.
Mr. Gerber and his team in El Paso typically encounter only a fraction of the tens of thousands of travelers who cross the border in El Paso each day. They see only the people line officers suspect of trying to sneak in prohibited items, including bologna.
Travelers are allowed to take cheese and many other kinds of food from Mexico into the U.S., but many meats are banned because of health concerns such as swine flu and other animal-borne illnesses. The products can be legally imported by licensed importers who can verify the origins of the meat and certify that the animals it came from were healthy.
On a typical day during the budget year that ended in September, officers found more than 4,500 prohibited agricultural items, including food and plants, according to CBP.
East Coast-based agricultural officers routinely find African game meat tucked inside luggage. In November, customs officers seized nearly 16 pounds of unpasteurized soft cheese wrapped in five tanned animal skins that had been brought in from Turkey, according to CBP.
Fans of Mexican bologna, which typically comes in large rolls like Italian salami, say its richer, less salty taste is far superior to the prepackaged processed meat in American grocery stores. It is eaten as slices, unadorned, on a sandwich, or cooked.
It is sold in the U.S. at specialty Hispanic-foods markets, at higher prices than in Mexico. At one Phoenix-area market specializing in Hispanic foods, chicken and pork bologna from Mexican meat company Chimex sells for $4.99 a pound, or about $50 per roll. In Mexico, the rolls sell for about $10.
The bologna can have a street value of $100 or more for a 10-pound roll in areas where there are no stores that legally import and sell it, said Roger Maier, a CBP spokesman.
“It’s really good,” said Maria Batista, a 23-year-old social worker from South Florida. “I’m Dominican and we usually use it with breakfast, fry it in a pan and eat it with eggs.” She said she finds the imported version at local grocery stores.
As for Mr. Gerber, he said he had never tried Mexican bologna. “It’s probably got a unique taste and flavor that these folks grew up on,” he said.
A hidden sandwich’s worth of bologna or a small chorizo roll tucked away in a purse can result in a fine of a few hundred dollars. Larger amounts that authorities suspect will be sold on the black market carry fines starting at $1,000.
Mr. Gerber said travelers carrying small quantities of bologna or other banned items for their personal use routinely try to sneak them past border officers while declaring a variety of other groceries.
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Big-time bologna smugglers often borrow tactics from their counterparts in the illicit drug trade, stashing the meat rolls in hidden compartments along the sidewalls of a van or inside a spare tire. Customs officers assume the larger quantities of bologna are bound for illicit sales at inflated prices.
CBP officers “are trained in deep concealment, and 99% of the time, they assume drugs,” Mr. Gerber said. “The next thing you know, they are looking at rolls of bologna.”
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