I used to skip the line if it was over half an hour long.One of my sons has a legal right to move ahead and use the handicap entrance.That s the Only way you can take cuts that I know of.I remember getting lots of dirty looks from the people that waited.Some people even made rude comments to us.But the health of my child comes 1st.So we take cuts.( we might have been the people you saw - One guy and his three teenage sons )
Used to be that the tour buses would just go through the border in a special lane, where the immigration officer would just board the bus and ask to see everyone s documentation. They would then be waved through. These days (since 9/11), they make people get off the bus and go through the pedestrian line. But, they may shuttle them through quickly in a special line.A few years ago, I went into that building where they check the pedestrians. There was a line that wasn t blocked off (on the far left), there was no one in it, and no immigration officer. So, my wife and I just walked over to that line and made our way to the exit. No one ever stopped us or looked at our documents. It took us less than 5 minutes to get through the border on an otherwise very busy day.
Go to the front of the line and tell em Shmo sent ya, and you re golden.