CBP’s Unreported Money Seizures Up 62% at Detroit Airport

On April 23, 2019, the U.S. Customs and Border Control (CBP) office in Romulus, Michigan, issued a press release reporting a dramatic increase in unreported money seizures. CBP reported that during the first half of fiscal year 2019, CBP Officers within the Detroit Field Office increased the seizure of unreported currency from international passengers by 62% when compared to the same prior during the prior fiscal year. The press release claims that “[a] vast majority of the seizures occurred at Detroit Metro Airport.”

In fiscal year 2018 starting October 1 and ending March 31, CBP Officers from the Detroit Field Office seized $2,384,360 in unreported currency from international travelers. During the same time period in fiscal year 2019, that number had increased to $3,852,262 seized.

Not surprisingly, the Detroit Metro Airport (DTW) and Wayne County Airport Authority make little effort to properly advise international travelers about their obligations to fill out the FinCEN105 form correctly. CBP Officers within the Detroit Field Office have been caught misleading passengers into make reporting mistakes in order to seize their cash for forfeiture, especially for travelers leaving the United States on International Flights with little warning of the reporting requirements. The warnings for international flights into the United States are also less prominent than at other airports.

International travelers do not commit a crime merely by carrying more than $10,000 into or out of the United States. Instead, U.S. law creates a duty for those international travelers to comply with federal currency reporting requirements that require the traveler to report the amount of currency or monetary instruments in their possession (or the possession of their group) when it totals $10,000 or more. That report should be made on a FinCEN105 form, but many travelers are questioned by CBP officer upon entry to or exit from the United States before they have a chance to fill out the firm or recount their money.

The failure to declare rarely results in an arrest, but the money can be seized for an administrative civil asset forfeiture proceedings, which means CBP gets to decide. The traveler is encouraged by CBP to file a petition for remission or mitigation to prove that the source and intended use of the currency was legitimate. Many petitions for remission or mitigation are denied 10 month later with a form letter telling the traveler that CBP decided to keep the money and that the matter is closed.

Many civil asset forfeiture attorneys advice their clients to skip CBP’s administrative proceeding entirely by filing a “verified claim for forfeiture” demanding court action. By filing the verified claim, CBP no longer gets to decide what happens to the money. Instead, CBP must convince an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA) at the Department of Justice in Detroit, Michigan, to file a civil lawsuit against the money within 90 days of the seizure.

That civil lawsuit is called a complaint for forfeiture that is filed in the U.S. District Court in Detroit, Michigan. In many of these cases, the AUSA will often “decline” to file the complaint for forfeiture within that 90 day period and instead instruct CBP to immeidately return the currency to the traveler.

Attorneys for Unreported Money Seizures by CBP

Attorneys can help international travelers file a verified claim immediately after the unreported money seizure at the airport. The traveler does not have to wait for the “notice of seizure” to arrive in the mail up to 60 days later. By filing a verified claim immediately after the seizure, it can speed up the process of getting the money back considerably.

International travelers are targeted by CBP and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers before and after international flights to see if they filled out the FinCEN105 form correctly to declare bring $10,000 or more across the border. If several people are traveling together, they are expected to all pool the money and put on the FinCEN105 all money carried by the group if the total amount is $10,000 or more.

For this reason, if two people traveling together each of $5,000, they might not realize that their money combined even totals the $10,000 threshold. CBP takes advantage of that confusion by just seizing the unreported or underreported money for forfeiture processings.

Reports of Bulk Cash Smuggling

CBP and DHS HSI officers are particularly aggressive during these investigations at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport and other ports of entry within the Detroit Field Office. Those other ports of entry include the main Detroit land port at West Fort Street, Lansing and Grand Rapids.

Devin Chamberlain, CBP Port Director at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, as quoted in the press release as saying: “This increase clearly demonstrates our continued commitment, and that of our partners, to protect the United States from proceeds of criminal activity.”

CBP often calls the incidents “bulk cash smuggling” but the median and average amount seized by CBP Officers within the Detroit Field Office is lower than across other airports. The lower the amount, the more likely the failure to report or to report the exact amount on the FinCEN105 form was inadvertant.

The term “bulk cash smuggling” applies to intentional acts of concealing currency or intentionally failing to report monetary instruments with the intent of evading currency reporting requirements while intentionally attempting to transport the currency or monetary instrument across the U.S. border.

Read more about CBP’s increase in unreported money seizures at the Detroit Airport.

This article was last updated on Thursday, September 18, 2025.