Originally Posted by
under2100
Apologies for not following most of this thread, and I am sorry to hear about your father and that you sound terribly worried for him - but I assume by this remark that you have a US passport? Then can you not simply say, 'I am returning home', and they will happily allow you out. They don't tie together the inbounds with the outbounds. I always travel outbound on a US passport, and that was going to be my first line of defense, with the said letter as a second.
Thank you. My fundamental understanding is that under the law, a foreign passport doesn't influence the outcome. Sure, a foreign citizen returning home is a permitted reason for travel. But a foreign resident citizen is not entitled to that exemption. Now, at the margins, I would imagine that it would matter (if not w/r/t being fine, w/r/t being turned around) given that lockdown rules aside, preventing a foreign citizen of any type from returning to their home country is a bit of an escalation.
Whether an officer questioning a traveler would accept "I'm a U.S. citizen going home" without questioning why they were here etc. (exposing the fact they were resident) is anyone's guess.