see also: in October 2007 News Releases:   Cocaine Smuggler Tries To Trick El Paso CBP Officers by Hiding Drugs in Car Body   Border Patrol Agents in Texas Seize Marijuana Worth $1 Million Hidden Under Watermelons   Fingerprint Check Allows Border Patrol to Arrest Murder Suspect   Border Patrol Texas Task Force Seizes 500 Pounds of Marijuana   CBP Officers at Mail Facility Find Marijuana in Cement Statues, Opium   Tecate, Calif. Cargo Processing Port to Resume Operations Wednesday Morning   CBP at Newark Airport Discovers Man with Fraudulent Documents, False Claim to U.S. Citizenship ...more on cbp.gov:   CBP News Releases   Press Officers

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Chicago — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Chicago recently recovered a missing teenager from Racine, Wis. at O’Hare International Airport. The young man, a 15-year-old U.S. citizen, had been reported to the Racine police as missing before arriving on a flight from Mexico City.

CBP officers identified the youth by using an information records check, then met the plane and escorted the teen to a nearby secure waiting area. CBP contacted the Racine Police Department and verified that the passenger was an exact match to a missing persons report. Once the match was confirmed, Racine police officers were dispatched and arrived to escort the young man back to Wisconsin without incident.

“Many people don’t realize that the international terminal of an airport is a border location,” said David Murphy, CBP’s Chicago operations director. “At the O’Hare ‘border’ in Chicago we recover missing youth, missing persons and apprehend individuals on active warrants each month. CBP arrests more fugitives than any other law enforcement agency because of our role at the border.”

Chicago O’Hare is the fourth busiest international arrivals airport in the United States and CBP routinely coordinates with local and federal law enforcement agencies when individuals are encountered, recovered or apprehended due to warrants or in this case a missing persons record.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.