Originally Posted by
techie
Before I got Global Entry, I hated when CBP did this. Too often, those kiosks were for US citizens/residents only and ESTA holders were shoo-ed into the snail-pace "rest of the world" queue. US citizens/residents with no GE should be encouraged to queue in their special few lines, since they are just coming home so their immigration should be fairly streamlined.
Anyhow, while I am now in the "I'm alright, Jack" position with GE, it still annoyed me a lot at the time.
I believe there are also foreign Visa holders who are "coming home" (and, as far as I can tell, they even pay taxes!?). Admittedly they're not ESTA users.
However ESTA users have had to pay a unilateral this-isn't-a-Visa-fee, so I think it's fair to give them some little bit of service.
(Plus there are some who might be bringing business to the USA, I'm sure those are prime candidates for being made to wait for a long time.)