This is also the height of anti-immigrant fervor in the United States. This is 9 years after the Johnson-Reed Act (Immigration Act of 1924) [1], which basically tried to ban all immigration from Asia.

There is a great Hasan Minhaj episode that showed how Asian populations in the US owe their presence a lot to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which passed during the Civil Rights era [2, 3].

References:

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_FE78X-qdY

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_Nationality_Ac...

But one of the guys stayed? " Gustad Hathiram, decided to stay in the United States."

According to this, he cut off contact with his family in India and became an auto mechanic in St Petes, FL

https://zoroastrians.net/2017/11/13/the-mystery-of-gustad-me...

I think they are trained that way. Correct reaction is to be somewhat annoyed but not too nervous. If you are totally cool with insults and inquiries, you are obviously a trained spy or professional criminale.

US passport holder here, IME skin tone and country of origin has as much to do with it. I've had equal pleasant and unprofessional instances with USCIS while traveling alone, with a greencard holder, or with children. I've literally had agents be pleasant to families in front of us while being unpleasant to us when it was our turn at their desk.

This reminds me of the times I’ve experienced things like that and other people’s default reaction is to invalidate my experience