Originally Posted by
fischi
Many years ago, I was returning to the US through LAX from a year studying abroad at Sussex University. I cleared immigration and customs. As I was walking down the hall to the exit I was pulled aside by a non-uniformed officer and asked a few additional questions. Admittedly, I looked like an unwashed backpacker coming straight from Amsterdam. He asked where I had been, how long, what I had done. Then, when I said I had been at university, he asked me what my teacher's name was. This totally threw me because, of course, at college one doesn't have one teacher, but many. I managed to stammer out a name finally and was cleared to go on. I just found the whole thing surprising, because I had already cleared both immigration and customs.
I don t understand why people answer when they get these questions. If I got "pulled aside by a non-uniformed officer and asked a few additional questions," my answers would have been "go engage in reproductive activity with yourself" to every question. I had non-uniformed somebody or others attempt to question me at Heathrow a few years back. I asked what the planned to do with the information they would collect if I co-operated. They couldn't provide a coherent, credible answer, so I bid them good day.
Another time, at AMS, they started asking questions about the "purpose" of my travel, which I reminded them is not information I share with people I don't know. They then then took me into another room and thoroughly searched all my stuff. They found three things in my bags I thought I had lost years previously, and I thanked them for helping me find them without answering any questions before I boarded my flight.