Where did you get the idea that you can't enter the US unless you get a TRIP approval?!?!?!

That has absolutely NO impact on admissibility. Even if you are given a TRIP redress number, you can still be denied entry into the United States. If you have the waiver in hand, I suggest you simply try to cross the border again and be honest like you were last time. As long as you are honest, the worst thing they will do is send you back. He told you to come back with a waiver, not a TRIP redress number, right? Again, where did you get the idea that you can't enter the US unless you get a TRIP approval? TRIP is meaningless-- you wasted 9 months waiting for a number that means nothing. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

See also:

http://www.aclu.org/privacy/gen/4127...html?s_src=RSS

Again, TRIP is useless and meaningless. Period.