Another reason to avoid travelling to the U.S. recently, it's an absolute .... show (pardon my French). In theory it will be reimbursable upon leaving but nobody yet knows if it's on-demand or automatic, but it's likely they will try and dispute as much as possible (like BA lol) to make as much money as possible. On your friend's particular case, we also don't know if it's applicable. This admin is capable of doing something retro-active. More to be divulged I guess.