Not unusual.

VPN user or was traveling.

The trick is to ask the right questions without coming across as so nosey that you make well-qualified legit candidates not only say "pass" but tell their friends to do the same.

Only two reasons I can think of:
*Pending transfer to regular police. For example, if I assault an immigration officer, he has every right to arrest and hold me but only as long as is reasonably necessary to call the "real cops" and transfer me into their custody to face assault charges.
* If he has a reasonable belief that I am an alien subject to arrest and I don't identify myself as a citizen. Once I identify myself as a citizen, he is obliged to quickly determine if I'm telling the truth. Once he no longer has a reasonable belief that I'm an alien subject to arrest he has no reason to keep me, assuming I'm not being held for other reasons like having just punched him in the face (see above).

There's also the issue of "quiet economic boycott" - boycotting an event but not saying the quiet part out loud: That you are staying home because the hosting country's policies.

If I were an award-recipient but had no other reason to come to America that week, I might come, or I might choose to say "sorry, I have other plans that day."

You knew the costs of travel-related vaccinations before you booked the trip. Or you should have at any rate.

Oh wait, you mean $BRIBE or $FINE, sorry, carry on.

It would've been cooler if Harvard, MIT, and Boston University had opened a temporary joint campus in Montreal, preferably in a preschool or elementary school.

Montreal is close to Boston and can host big events.

A preschool has exactly the right vibe for something like this. It might not have a big enough room though.

it's feature not a bug, right?

You forgot the big one: Industrial or state espionage. It is one of the big drivers behind making sure company data doesn't walk out the door when it's not supposed to.

As to why people do this: The usual reason - money.

Dial down the power to shorten the sniffing range?

Randomize the "ID" code every time the car starts or every time the wheel is idle for 10 minutes?

Enable some simple encryption?

Each of these has some costs.

I would consider this as a portable replacement for a low-end/used Mac Mini if it supported decent video output. The 13 in screen means it won't be my "daily driver."

All feel less safe if their children, staff, and residents/nationals/citizens can communicate privately without approval.

Parents may have a legitimate need to watch over communications at least for younger children. That said, your little one's best friend's 14 year old big brother is just as likely to tell your kid something in person you don't want them to hear as some stranger on the interwebs.

Companies may have a legitimate need to make sure company secrets don't walk out the door but beyond that their employees' lives are none of their business. That said, if you have employees who are determined to hurt your company, you have an HR problem not a technical one.

Governments who forget that legitimate governments serve the people not the other way around are no longer legitimate.

"Streisand effect"?

Linux?

I'd much rather let the Chinese get there the first time before we get there again than have a foreseeable disaster kill the crew.

"Newly restored" better show Han shooting first or there will be outcry from the fans.

Have a separate system that rate-limits cash withdrawals to no more than a few hundred dollars per minute and a few thousand dollars per 15 minutes. This system would only be adjustable if the ATM were opened for service.