Originally Posted by
ESpen36
Front of line, perhaps. But they still had to be processed.
OT: Makes me wonder how it works if you fly to Canada or Mexico and then drive back over the border (where the agent usually just glances at you and waves you through, without swiping your passport into the system). How would the CBP computer system know you had returned Stateside? Could foul things up the next time you try to leave the country by air and and the airline swipes your passport for APIS purposes prior to boarding pass issuance.
(Or are all U.S. land border stations swiping individual passports/WHTI-complaint documents for each and every traveler nowadays?)
The U.S. government does not track whether its citizens are outside or inside the country. It only matches arrivals through manifests of ships and planes, and requires airlines to report U.S. citizens' departures, and whatever itinerary information associated with their arrivals.