CBP officials offer food travel tips for the holidays

McALLEN - Thousands of Rio Grande Valley residents during the holiday season hop across the border in pursuit of bountiful feasts with faraway friends and relatives.

And each year, some of them forget that they are prohibited from returning to the United States with certain foods such as raw meat, poultry and pork.

Although the punishment of bringing such items into the country is not as serious as that of smuggling drugs or weapons, travelers can be given hefty fines, some as high as $500.

On Tuesday, a traveler at the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge was fined $500 for failing to declare a pound and a half of pork. He was

also permanently barred from using the port's Secure Electronic Network for Travelers Rapid Inspection lane.

Two weeks ago, a traveler at the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge was fined $500 for failing to declare just over a pound of raw chicken.
"Travelers need to be alert about what they can't bring in (to the United States)," Customs Border Patrol spokesman Felix Garza said. "Smuggling is an issue we deal with on a daily basis."

Like drug and weapons prohibitions, such regulations are enforced by CBP as required by other government agencies. Such prohibitions, such as those against mangos, oranges and seeded avocados, are enforced to protect the country's health and plant and animal life.

Not all fruits and vegetables are prohibited from entering the United States, Garza said. But that doesn't mean people shouldn't declare them, because officers must waste time searching their belongings and delay already long lines.

"A lot of times people forget to declare things and we have to search them," Garza said. "But people have to be prepared to give a full declaration."

Still, some travelers knowingly sneak food into the country, as was the case last month when a woman stuffed several diapers with pork sausage, or chorizo, at the Hidalgo bridge.

"Our job is to intercept people from bringing these items in," Garza said. "We try to offer people information and make them aware about what they can and can't bring in."