Originally Posted by
BigFlyer
No one questions their right to question. But, the UK Border Force, The French Border Police, etc., all have that same right, but don't find it necessary to ask question of their returning citizens. A Brit returning home (or an American visiting) just place their passports in the automatic border gates, smile for the camera - the gate then opens and they are done.
The question is why does CBP feel the need to question returning citizens when these other countries do not.
That is incorrect. EU border forces
do NOT have the same rights that the CBP. The Schengen Border Code is very clear in Article 8:
REGULATION (EU) 2016/399 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 9 March 2016 on a Union Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders (Schengen Borders Code)
Article 8 Border checks on persons
All persons shall undergo a minimum check in order to establish their identities on the basis of the production or presentation of their travel documents. Such a minimum check shall consist of a rapid and straightforward verification, where appropriate by using technical devices and by consulting, in the relevant databases, information exclusively on stolen, misappropriated, lost and invalidated documents, of the validity of the document authorising the legitimate holder to cross the border and of the presence of signs of falsification or counterfeiting. The minimum check referred to in the first subparagraph shall be the rule for persons enjoying the right of free movement under Union law. However, on a non-systematic basis, when carrying out minimum checks on persons enjoying the right of free movement under Union law, border guards may consult national and European databases in order to ensure that such persons do not represent a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat to the internal security, public policy, international relations of the Member States or a threat to the public health.