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.
You may not care that they work for the same agency but one is not Immigration and the other Customs. The officer does both functions. It doesn't matter where the officer is physically standing the officer has the legal authority to enforce both Title 8, Title 19, and many others actually. It is a mistake to assume that the officer is only focusing on the one function.
You are not forced to answer any questions. The officer is required to be satisfied concerning your identity, your citizenship, you are not smuggling contraband, and what you are bringing in does not have duty owed. That is most efficiently done by asking questions and receiving truthful, clear answers that are not purposefully vague in order to flex your rights. You don't have to do that but be prepared to be detained in order for the above activities to be completed through other methods.
In your example, in the extreme case if you don't want to answer questions concerning what you brought back like your knick knacks concerning origin, value , etc. The officer can just seize the the knick knacks and send you on your way. If you are asking how to get through the admission process without being detained, the answer is to answer the questions truthfully, clearly without playing the word games. The officer actually wants to get you on your way as quickly as possible as well. The word games do nothing but raise the suspicion level of the officer. Bad guys who are up to no good are also tend to answer questions in a very vague manner as well.
FB