It would have gone much smoother like this: Border Patrol: What is the purpose of your visit? Liar: I'm helping my friend move Border Patrol: How long are yo

It would have gone much smoother like this: Border Patrol: What is the purpose of your visit? Liar: I'm helping my friend move Border Patrol: How long are you staying? Liar: Heading back on Monday. Border Patrol: OK, have a good trip. The problem is, well, primarily that he chose to lie when crossing the border. But, more specifically he chose the wrong lie to tell. If you're crossing the border and planning to lie about the purpose of your visit, you'd be better off making it easy on yourself and lie about the length of your stay instead. I don't mean to suggest to anyone that you should lie at all - it is much smarter to just tell the truth. I'm just saying that if you are planning to lie because you have the wrong visa type or whatever, then at least be smart about it and think of better story. Otherwise you wind up trying to explain to a border patrol why you are entering the country with no return date and staying for 3 months just to "visit California."