They do have the power

if they choose to exercise it.

Today's trip from Nice back to Phoenix went Nice to Frankfurt, Frankfurt to San Francisco and San Francisco to Phoenix. At San Francisco I ran into the usual problem with my green card. He scanned it and it came up flagged with a 'missing' duplicate. By now I'm inured to the idea that I'm going to be spending some time in secondary immigration inspection so it came as one heck of a surprise, having answered the usual questions, to see him flip through my passport, notice the temporary greencard stamp issued at Phoenix in March this year, and stamp me on through!

Apart from that first hiccough back on April 14th[^] that's been the usual procedure except that it hasn't been done by the front line guy; they've always shunted me off to the waiting room to cool my heels (this at a time when I'm dying for a smoke!). The secondary inspection guy then flips through the passport, notices the temporary stamp aforesaid, asks me the same questions each time and stamps me through!

I'm thinking that when I return from The Philippines week after next at LAX, I'll hand the passport and greencard over, with the passport open at that page. Not that it'll work; he'll flip to the biographical data page and shunt me off to secondary inspection when the greencard comes up flagged. But I have to try!