Originally Posted by
StefanNYC
The issue at hand is visitors (i.e., non-US citizens who are also not permanent residents). Those have to surrender their I-94 forms, which is an indication that they left the country. As DLPhoenix remarked correctly, any of such passengers could, after being let off the plane, exit the airport and remain in the US while having left the country "on paper".
IIRC, the I-94s are collected at checkin and not at the gate -- thus, anyone wishing to deceive the authorities like this could try checking in for a flight and then walking right into the street -- but I imagine the fact that (s)he never boarded would be registered, with the obvious consequences. Here, in contrast, everyone had boarded, so they'd have to somehow undo that, as far as immigration is concerned.
Hence, there would be an issue, but almost certainly a solvable one.
Thanks for that bit of info. But then I still don't understand how KLM, as I described several posts above, managed to offload my plane. I know there were several pax speaking Dutch and Turkish on my flight and they were probably not US citizens. As I said we all got off the plane and somehow KLM handled the situation. Thanks again.