All some people need is a uniform and a badge .....
When I was a teenager I ran afoul of a border control agent. I didndunuffin, had my passport, etc. but he was out to throw his weight around I guess because he was hungover on the job and it was going to be a couple of more hours before he would be able to sneak of to be drunk on the job. LOONG time ago.
There are all kinds of situations where a competent supervisor [yeah, I know, where are you going to get one of those] could save everyone a lot of grief all the way around.
Some years ago a friend of mine from England came over and we were traveling about the Southwest. At a border patrol station some 70 miles from the border all cars were being stopped and asked a few questions. When they asked my friends nationality he said British. They asked to see his passport which he had left at my home a few hundred miles away. He did not know he needed it to travel internally in the USA.
The border patrol agents were stern but polite. They told him he must always carry his passport and sent us on our way in about 3 minutes. It was obvious we were not criminal aliens or drug smugglers. That is what they were really looking for.