Indeed. The itinerary was Europe to Canada to US, and the US had two
intl airports (which I won't reveal for privacy). There was a
"pre-screening" in Toronto, where US ICE was operating in Canada,
where they collected my US landing card and asked the typical
questions, only this time without the check-on luggage in my
possession. They showed a digital photo of my check-on, and asked if
that was my bag. I said "yup", and they sent me on my way.

I thought that since they called it a pre-screening, that I would
still need to do more with customs further along the route, but that
never happened.

Nope, that was the customs inspection. Most US airports have no
immigration or customs facilities, and there is no provision for
customs inspection separate from immigration. As soon as you were
precleared in Toronto, you and your luggage were for all practical
purposes in the United States.

If the customs people in Toronto have questions about your luggage,
they can send you to secondary inspection where they physically
retrieve your bags and insepct them, but they almost never do.

As I think I mentioned in a previous message, flights from Canada to
the US have been prescreened since the 1950s so there is really no
excuse for airline staff not knowing about it.

--
Regards,
John Levine, , Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly