Originally Posted by richard

there are two officials. I don't care that they work for the same entity. One is immigration, the other is customs.

Customers can search you and I get that.

Immigration people are law enforcement officers whose job is to ascertain if you are allowed into the United States.

Once I present my passport, I'm done with them. I don't have to answer their questions. I don't like to and I don't have to. I'm wondering how to elegantly refuse without getting subject to temporary detention and upsetting my fellow travelers.

And a question like "did you bring anything back?" can only be answered with either 1) another question such as "like what?" or 2) an answer like "nothing" on the assumption that the question being asked is "did you bring anything back that you purchased from that country you came from and that we should know about" but that technically is a lie.

You see? This is a problem. You can't get around it. What's the solution?

READ the OP cite carefully, please. It tells me that if I assume something is being asked that is not being asked, I can be lying to a federal official and I am committing a crime, let alone that what I say can be used against me.