The teens claimed CBP targeted them because they hadn’t booked hotels for their entire stay in Hawaii.
“They found it suspicious that we hadn’t fully booked our accommodations for the entire five weeks in Hawaii,” Pohl said. “We wanted to travel spontaneously. Just like we had done in Thailand and New Zealand.”
I would bet it was for a WWOOFing or Workaway style thing where you do a few hours menial labor in exchange for room and board. Often attracts backpacker types. Typical advice is to lie to Customs (in any country) and just get a tourist visa, which is always a gamble at best.
That’s what I was thinking too. And afaik that’s just legal.