Originally Posted by
jphripjah
He's entitled to "ask" anything he wants. You are entitled not to answer. You don't have to tell Uncle Sam what you were doing in Japan if you don't want to. They still have to let you in if you have proven that you are a US citizen.
They can't deport you for refusing to answer. They can't arrest you for refusing to answer. They can't keep you at the airport forever for refusing to answer. All they can do is yell at you and stamp their feet and threaten you and search your bag and then let you go home in 1-2 hours.
To each his or her own, I guess. It just baffles me that people would go through the time and trouble of signing up for a program to expedite screening and then willingly stonewall the screening process on principle.
Seriously: if you are GE with no previous violations then 90% of the time you are basically though immigration AND customs after speaking with CBP for only 1-2 minutes MAX. They are simply asking you a few broad questions relevant to their job.