Originally Posted by
Often1
If you wound up in secondary on one occasion and were accused of "bad attitude" on another, you might consider just dealing with these things in a neutral manner. The line agents with whom you interface are not policy makers and are not going to change. If you want to kvetch to AC, border authorities or whomever, that is fine. But, in the moment, simply produce what you are asked to produce and leave it alone..
But they don't always know the policy, and if they are wrong, it can be very inconvenient. Collecting the I94 is a good example (and I may be wrong, but I interpret the comment about going to secondary to mean that the OP needed to get a new I94, not that s/he has a flag on his/her file). Lots of AC agents think they are supposed to collect I94s from all outbound passengers who have them. This is simply incorrect. So "simply produce what you are asked to produce and leave it alone" is very unhelpful advice.
FWIW, I had two ways of dealing with the I94 issue when leaving the US on AC. The first was simply to pocket the form before showing my passport. The second was to ask the customs agent who issued the form to write on it "MULTIPLE USE; NOT TO BE REMOVED BY AIRLINE". They obviously knew why I was asking, and would sometimes write this in red pencil so there was no mistaking it. Then when the DCA agent tried to remove it, I would show him the official remark. (I often wondered about a third way, which was to write this myself on the I94)