My preferred usual airports of re-entry: EWR (Newark_ -- most friendly Immigration staff, MSP (Minneapolis), SEA (Seattle, 'cuz it's home), IAH (Houston). Least preferred: DTW (Detroit).
I’m with you on SEA and also I like DFW and PDX; avoid LAX if at all possible, especially if coming from Asia! I just got back from China, and we arrived at 8:10 AM (very favorable jet stream), about 40 minutes ahead of schedule. We sat ON THE PLANE until 9 AM when the immigration officers started their shifts.
And we weren’t the only plane WAITING for their 9 AM start time. Insanity - 1500 people (four flights) held up because 8 officers don’t clock-in until 9 AM... We were cued into the lines at 9:05 AM as the officers sauntered to their booths, spent a few minutes getting things set up “just right”, then started processing.
Good thing I wisely switched my 10:30 AM flight to SEA to an 11:35 AM flight instead; by the time I got through immigration and customs it was 10:20 AM.
If immigration was open when we arrived, it would have been no problem; as it is, LAX is about the worst place I’ve come through in terms of immigration/customs.
I agree with IHA.