" they don't obviously get to impose penal sanctions on people for saying no"
I wonder if there is any negative effects associated with being refused entry by a CBP? Could it be the case that if you are refused entry once, that in the future they will be more likely to refuse you entry? If so, that's a fairly significant penalty/power that the CBP person has.
> I wonder if there is any negative effects associated with being refused entry by a CBP? Could it be the case that if you are refused entry once, that in the future they will be more likely to refuse you entry? If so, that's a fairly significant penalty/power that the CBP person has.
Yes, some categories of non-citizen visitors (I don't remember which) are asked on the form if they have ever been refused entry to the U.S. (and are required to answer yes or no). If they're using the same passport number as before, CBP likely also has access to a computerized record of the previous interaction.
Plenty of countries will ask if you've ever been refused entry to any country. And you're also generally automatically excluded from any Visa Waiver Programme from then on too. So it's a major issue.
> If they're using the same passport number as before, CBP likely also has access to a computerized record of the previous interaction.
(They might also be able to search their database by biographical details such as date of birth, so getting a different passport may not prevent them from guessing that you're the same person.)
I wonder if there is any negative effects associated with being refused entry by a CBP? Could it be the case that if you are refused entry once, that in the future they will be more likely to refuse you entry? If so, that's a fairly significant penalty/power that the CBP person has.