Happy Easter From Customs and Border Protection!

Happy Easter! Hopefully Townhall readers are celebrating by spending time with family today, going to church and having an Easter egg hunt later. Something that the Easter bunny won't be able to bring, though, is Kinder Eggs. They are chocolate eggs with a toy inside, and they are unavailable in the United States because the toy makes them "unsafe for children under three". Customs and Border Protection issued a reminder this week that these dangerous items are still illegal. From CNN.com:

Kinder Eggs, a popular European chocolate egg that contains a toy inside, is banned from importation into the United States because it contains a "non-nutritive object embedded in it."

With the Easter holiday around the corner, the agency issued the reminder this week, warning that the candy is considered unsafe for children under 3. Last year, Customs and Border Protection seized 25,000 of them in 1,700 incidents.

The hollow egg, which is sold by the Italian confectioner Ferrero, is available in Europe, Canada, Australia and parts of Latin America under various names including Kinder Surprise and Kinder Sorpresa. It has taken on a cult status among adults who collect the toys, which vary from rings to animals and cartoon characters.

So these milk chocolate eggs are banned because they have a toy inside them. Parents obviously can't handle making sure that their kids won't eat the toy and choke, so it's the government's job to do it for them.

The article goes on to describe "commercial size raids" on these things, as though they are weapons or drugs, not chocolate. Doesn't a border protection agency have anything better to do?

Happy Easter from US Customs and Border Protection!