Usually people of interest get whisked aside to a secondary screening area. They don't tend to hold up the queue that much, except for the fact the border agent has to temporarily close their desk for a few minutes while they escort that person to another room. In total you might face an extra 60-120 seconds in the line.

I think he was more worried about being vented on. It's hard to do much to a returning US citizen, so the guy in front would eventually be waved through (possibly without the friendly "welcome home" that they're supposed to say). Next guy in line, from anywhere else at all, would get the wrath of justice unleashed on him.

Sorry, dude. My bad.

What wrath? The whole line is US citizens, and it's hard to do much to a returning US citizen.

Yes, that is what I was thinking but someone else just reminded me that your line would be only US citizens. I'd be in the other one with all the other non-US people.

Therefore, if any wrath is unleashed on me it won't be because of you. Carry on!

> possibly without the friendly "welcome home" that they're supposed to say

That'd be about as about as not getting art in the foam of my latte! I'd write a letter!

This isnt true in my experience, I was on a watchlist type thing for a few years (dont lose your passport ever if you plan to visit the states :) and every time I got taken to secondary screening but only after a rather lengthy set of questions at the first screen, I think even once I interrupted them to ask just to send me to the secondary one.

It was pretty fustrating to have to wait sometimes up to hours (Dallas airport sucks) to know that I was going to get sent to another screen and wait anywhere between 15 minutes and 3 hours to get out, the people were also almost always overly aggressive.