A well publicized case here in Uruguay was when someone was asked to throw away a pen, and he said "it's not as if this pen is a bomb", so he was refused entry

A well publicized case here in Uruguay was when someone was asked to throw away a pen, and he said "it's not as if this pen is a bomb", so he was refused entry into the U.S. People still travel to the U.S., but it's very likely costing the country a lot of tourist dollars - not that the U.S. cares, they have enough tourists as is.