The Department of Homeland Security has announced that the U.S. is considering 11 new foreign locations to be a part of the preclearance program.
The program ensures that there are U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents stationed at those airports, where their job is to do inspections on agriculture, immigration, and customs.
The Department of Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson has explained that expanding the program is high priority since it means that fewer high risk people will be getting on planes that are heading to the U.S.
The new cities that they are considering include Bogota, Colombia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Mexico City; Milan and Rome, Italy; Osaka, Japan; Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, and also some airports in Edinburgh, Scotland; Reykjavik, Iceland; and half of St. Maarten.
To move forward with the plan the U.S. and those countries will have to come up with Preclearance agreements together.
Currently there are 15 different airports with the program in place, which are located in Aruba, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates.
