Skip to content

US Customs and Border Protection

US federal agency under the Department of Homeland Security that enforces border security, customs laws, and trade compliance, including tariff collection.

Known aliases

  • CBP
  • Customs and Border Protection
  • US CBP
  • US Customs
  • US Customs and Border Patrol

Current stories

leadershipConfirmed2 publishers

Nine-year Delta agent sues, alleging a forced resignation over a CBP seal that was later granted

Badri Adan sued Delta on October 15, alleging it refused to reinstate him after CBP issued the seal that was the stated reason for his exit. The complaint places the seal 56 days after Delta's own deadline and alleges race and Somali heritage played a role in a manager's delay.

Reality

Evidence40
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+10
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence50
leadershipOne report1 publisher

BBC trace puts a Chinese factory's profit on a $30 toy at 18 to 60 cents

A BBC trace of a $30 toy from a Dongguan factory to a US shelf puts the factory's price at $6 and its profit at 18 to 60 cents. China supplied 78.3% of US toy imports in 2024, so a margin that thin sits at the front of a concentrated chain.

Publishers:bbc.co.uk

Reality

Evidence58
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+8
Incentives38
Confidence62
investConfirmed4 publishers

Rochon's 14-day order halts Trump's ads with about $1 million of the $20 million left to spend

Judge Jennifer Rochon gave Trump's administration a 14-day order to cancel the remaining ads in a $20 million taxpayer-funded campaign. CNBC reported that roughly $19 million was spent before the order. That leaves about $1 million for it to stop.

Perspective Coverage

4 publishers
Builder
Builder 7%
Operator
Operator 59%
Investor
Investor 34%

Reality

Evidence72
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+25
Incentives60
Confidence74
leadershipOne report1 publisher

TSA's removal of checkpoint chairs hands its officers' union a public campaign

TSA ordered chairs out of checkpoint document stations on September 25 without telling the officers' union, AFGE officials say. The union now has a public campaign to restore them, on top of existing fights with the agency over its contract and pay.

Publishers:theguardian.com

Reality

Evidence45
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+15
Incentives65
Confidence50
investOne report1 publisher

Mail-order drugs from abroad lose their $800 customs exemption on Oct. 22

Customs and Border Protection indefinitely suspends the $800 de minimis exemption on Oct. 22, requiring extra data and a bond for mailed medicines. Americans buying cheaper prescriptions from Canada by mail could face delays or refusals as the midterms approach, Fortune reported.

Publishers:fortune.com

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+20
Incentives65
Confidence50
investOne report1 publisher

Flock's local camera buyers carry the risk of federal searches like CBP's 80,000-camera pilot

Customs and Border Protection accessed more than 80,000 Flock cameras in a 2025 pilot, one police department's without its knowledge. The cities and campuses that pay for the cameras are left answerable for searches they may never see.

Reality

Evidence50
Adoption65
Hype gap+20
Incentives40
Confidence55
investConfirmed2 publishers

Federal judge freezes the Big Bend stretch of Trump's $46 billion border-wall programme

Judge Kathleen Cardone halted border-wall building across Texas's 500-mile Big Bend region, one part of the administration's $46 billion programme. Contractors there now wait on a merits ruling, and upriver and downriver of the park they also wait on landowners who have not granted access.

Publishers:fortune.com mezha.net

Reality

Evidence70
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+10
Incentives60
Confidence70
leadershipOne report1 publisher

Lisa Riley is still fielding scam calls 17 months after paying a fake Esta site 16 pounds

Lisa Riley lost 16 pounds to a fake US Esta site and has had scam calls and texts every week in the 17 months since. For anyone booking US travel, the fee is the small part of the loss, because details typed into a lookalike site are sold on and reused.

Publishers:theguardian.com

Reality

Evidence45
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+15
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence55
productConfirmed2 publishers

Lawsuit alleges a DHS agent logged Maine ICE observers in a Palantir-built case system

Four ICE observers allege in a partly unsealed filing that a DHS agent logged at least six observers in ICM, the case system Palantir built for ICE. Drawn largely from government documents, it traces how a plate lookup and a disputed photo match became a federal case record in one afternoon.

Perspective Coverage

3 publishers
Builder
Builder 25%
Operator
Operator 48%
Investor
Investor 27%

Reality

Evidence58
Adoption65
Hype gap+30
Incentives55
Confidence60
investConfirmed5 publishers

The White House put a $303B number on tariff evasion. Read it as an audit notice

A 25-page OTMP report names about 40 countries and specific industrial districts as transshipment routes. The follow-through will land on documentation, not duty rates.

Perspective Coverage

5 publishers
Builder
Builder 19%
Operator
Operator 40%
Investor
Investor 41%

Reality

Evidence50
Adoption25
Hype gap+40
Incentives60
Confidence60
investOne report1 publisher

MIT Technology Review counts 1,050 deaths within range of the border's camera towers

Deaths were found inside the advertised range of nearly two-thirds of the roughly 600 towers mapped, and more than 110 of them sit within range of Anduril's autonomous systems installed since 2021.

Reality

Evidence70
Adoption78
Hype gap+18
Incentives58
Confidence62
productOne report1 publisher

Reporters built the border tower death map one Texas sheriff's office at a time

MIT Technology Review's 15-month investigation had to assemble its own dataset from other groups' records and sheriff reports in 17 Texas counties. Some of those counties charged between $300 and $1,300 to fill a request.

Reality

Evidence72
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap−8
Incentives50
Confidence63
buildOne report1 publisher

A 30-day retention window makes Anduril's border tower alerts unauditable

MIT Technology Review found more than 110 deaths inside the advertised range of Anduril's border towers since 2021. Tower footage is generally overwritten after 30 days, so no one can now say which stage of the alert chain failed.

Publishers:runtimewire.com

Reality

Evidence60
Adoption70
Hype gap+30
Incentives60
Confidence55
productOne report1 publisher

Landfill workers found the man three border towers were supposed to see

MIT Technology Review's 15-month investigation into US border surveillance puts the failure downstream of the cameras, at the step where a detection was supposed to turn into an agent arriving.

Reality

Evidence57
Adoption74
Hype gap+12
Incentives55
Confidence52
productOne report1 publisher

MIT Technology Review asks CBP for the tower audit it could have run since 2015

Reporters covered nearly 600 of the 800 towers the government says are operating, and they had to assemble the map themselves from outside sources. Death records follow no shared protocol, so their count of more than 1,050 deaths nearby is a floor.

Reality

Evidence72
Adoption78
Hype gap−18
Incentives58
Confidence62
productOne report1 publisher

MIT Technology Review counted more than 1,050 deaths inside the range of CBP's surveillance towers

The investigation found deaths inside the advertised range of nearly two-thirds of the towers it analysed, and most of them were not in blind spots. In the New Mexico case it follows closely, landfill workers made the call to Border Patrol.

Reality

Evidence70
Adoption82
Hype gap+18
Incentives55
Confidence62
investOne report1 publisher

CBP starts the Big Bend wall in Hudspeth County while the park project stays suspended

Panel installation is under way on the 47 miles Customs and Border Protection calls Big Bend 1, the first construction in a region organised against it. The agency says it is now putting up 12 miles a week.

Publishers:fortune.com

Reality

Evidence56
Adoption44
Hype gap+16
Incentives72
Confidence55
investOne report1 publisher

Importers are selling tariff refund claims at 80 cents on the dollar

February's 6-3 Supreme Court ruling left the federal government owing importers somewhere between $166 billion and $175 billion in voided tariffs. The companies collecting it are now deciding whether the money is theirs to keep.

Reality

Evidence20
Adoption35
Hype gap+40
Incentives60
Confidence25

Earlier coverage