I travel from the US to Canada occasionally (about once per year on average) with my family. We are all US citizens and travel with US passports. Every time we re-enter the United States, I am given extra scrutiny.
Most recently, we used an automated check-in procedure at the airport. These are terminals where you scan your passport & fill out a customs declaration online and it prints a receipt which you take to the customs agent. When I got my receipt, it had a big "X" printed on it and we were directed to a line to talk to an agent.
In the past, I've had questions directed at me or my family: "Have you ever been to New York?", "Do you own any firearms?", and once "Where is your daddy?" directed at my then 4 year old son. The agents also seem to examine my photo & my face more closely than the other members of my family.
We get through customs OK, but it gives me a some anxiety. I suspect that there's someone out there with the same name (I have a pretty common name) who is on a "no fly" list or something.
My question is this: is there any way to find out what they're looking for when they scan my passport & see my name? Like a Freedom of Information request or something? I know I could/should ask when I'm in the line, but as I said, it makes me pretty anxious.