Originally Posted by GUWonder

Underpants and pants can be used for much the same function. Require full-body nudity all the time? Not commonly in the US when it comes to situations such as that of the OP's acquaintance.

Even a sock can be made to have a dual-use, as a weapon component. No more socks, too? Not commonly either.

Often enough when US VWP users are being sent back as part of a "voluntary removal" from the US and end up in a holding/waiting facility of some sort for a flight within 24 hours, do underpants and pants get removed? I don't recall that being the norm.

But concerns about dual-use items for attack purposes is indeed the excuse used for demanding removal of some items when it comes to some such situations in the US.

It certainly helps to be informed about what CBP may do, and often enough does, to passengers traveling to/via the US. That includes being aware of the kind of situation mentioned by the OP in this thread and what happens in some such situations. Being informed in advance about what has transpired and sometimes does transpire in such situations is a practical necessity, more so for some kind of passengers than for other kinds of passengers.



Indeed, those travelers coming into the US via Japan were non-Japanese citizens and subject to a customs-related bust more than an immigration status related bust. [That is an example involving ethnic Hmongs, an ethnic group that was re-settled into the US (particularly into MN & WI) in rather large numbers after having been CIA-backed during the US involvement in the Vietnam War theater area and has had a substantial involvement in the drug-dealing gang world in the Upper Midwest? Not Japanese citizens; more likely US citizens.]