S2.E1: "Border Security: America's Front Line" Quiz

Answer: Terrorism, immigration, narcotics

The show opens with the message "Thousands of men and women dedicate their lives to protecting America's borders", followed by a series of short scenes that will be shown later in the episode. A narrator then gives the viewers some context about U.S. CBP, such as the fact that they have more than 20,000 officers securing more than 300 points of entry around the country.

As a sequence of images with CBP officers in airports, land borders, and helicopters dramatically plays, a CBP officer tells the camera that they are "worried about terrorism, immigration, and narcotics", which are usually the three most common topics that we see in this series."

Answer: Chicago

The O'Hare International Airport opened in the 1940's and is named in honor of Edward O'Hare, a U.S. Navy veteran who fought in World War II. Given Chicago's privileged location in the Midwest, the O'Hare airport serves as a hub for major U.S. airlines like United and American. The airport also welcomes international travelers from multiple countries, including Mexico, Japan, China, India, Spain, and Portugal.

The officers we see are part of the CBP rover team, who are on the tarmac on their way to execute an arrest warrant on an incoming passenger from the Bahamas.

Answer: Gentleman

Though only a few minutes have passed since the episode started, this is already the second time that the officer says that sentence, "If you act like a gentleman, you get treated like a gentleman". However, they did preface this action with a warning to the audience that they are trained to deal with a variety of situations should there be an escalation or threat of violence.

Answer: Jewelry

The officers at the international terminal 5 of Chicago O'Hare closely supervise the area in search of suspicious activity. They randomly select a couple arriving from India to proceed to secondary inspection, though the reason they stopped them could be because of the number and size of their bags.

The couple tells the officers that they only have clothing in their bags, which matches the information they gave on their customs declaration. However, the officers quickly find they are lying because there are numerous jewelry items that appear to be new in their luggage.

The woman denies that the jewelry is new, but the officers point out to her that some of the items still have tags on them, and appear upset that the couple lied to them.

Answer: Singer

The singer, only known to be from South America, explains she is visiting family for three months and sings wherever she can. She also says that she has access to around $3,000 dollars and shows a ticket proving her flight home is booked. The officer wants to make sure she's only there temporarily rather than intending to stay permanently in the U.S.

Answer: Restaurant

The traveler claims her cousin will pick her up outside the airport, but unconvinced they search her phone and read her text messages. A CBP translator helps the officers understand what's really going on: the cousin was coaching the traveler to tell the officers she was only there for vacation. Lying to immigration officers could be cause for a ban from entering the U.S. for at least five years.

When an officer speaks to the cousin, he does not provide convincing answers and can't even tell what she does for a living. This is a major red flag since it suggests they could be lying about the real reason the traveler is coming into the U.S. The cousin grows frustrated with the interrogation and the traveler is not allowed to come into the country since the officer suspects she would be working illegally in her cousin's restaurant/bar if she did enter. The traveler exclaims that "it's not fair" because many bad people come into the country and yet they are stopping her.

Answer: No

CBP officers at the Pacific Highway Crossing in the U.S.-Canada border say that border traffic can be unpredictable, and sometimes they need to determine whether the person crossing is hiding something or is simply "a character". In this case, a man from Canada is stopped for questioning because he attempted to cross the border on foot, which is odd since he had a car and it would've been easier for him to drive into the U.S. While he's being questioned, he tells the officer he wanted to see a picture of then-newly-elected President Donald Trump but noticed that there was no picture of him or former President Obama.

The officer finds a great number of cards inside the traveler's wallet, which raises his suspicions even more since it could indicate fraudulent activity. Moments later, the officer determines that the cards were all legitimate and the traveler was free to go.

Answer: Yes

The CBP officers call their supervisor to oversee the seizure of the gold jewelry from the Indian travelers, who claim the value is around $2,000 dollars per piece. The items are seized and will be returned after a penalty for failure to declare is paid to the cashier.

The officers calculate the value of the gold earrings, necklaces, and other jewelry items to be about $14,000 dollars of undeclared merchandise. They are charged $2,200 in penalties, which the officer thinks wasn't smart because they could've just paid a few hundred had they properly declared the jewelry.

He adds, "Honesty is the best policy".

Answer: Human bones

The suspect's fingerprints are taken in order to confirm if they match those from the outstanding warrant for owing child support. However, things take a dramatic turn when the traveler tells the officers he is carrying human bones in his backpack. Of course, this raises red flags with officers, who continue to examine the man's baggage.

The traveler claims to be an archaeologist who is bringing the bones for a DNA study. The bones are seized for further examination, but the traveler is extradited to the Ohio law enforcement agency that had a warrant for his arrest. The bones, eventually, were allowed in and made it all the way to Harvard University!

Answer: Synthetic drugs

The John F. Kennedy Airport in New York has a special mail-processing facility where officers examine mail for possible illegal items, including counterfeit phones and accessories, meat and other foods, and drugs. The officers open a package from China for closer inspection.

It was manifested as "beauty products" and does come in a "face mask" packaging, but upon closer inspection, their detection tools find furanyl fentanyl, a type of chemically altered fentanyl that is classified as a dangerous narcotic.