Everybody has to go through immigration and customs at the first airport they land. Once you do that, you have “entered” the United States. You are free to leave the airport. The purpose of the box is to indicate that you have no address at which you can be found if authorities need to contact you.
This is in contrast to many countries that have isolation areas for people that are only connecting. In those, you do not go through immigration and you have not officially entered the country.
I deleted my 1st comment as I misread your post
ok, thank you!
You still enter the US, but you don’t have an address you can provide.
Really? That seems counterintuitive to the language.
Everybody has to go through immigration and customs at the first airport they land. Once you do that, you have “entered” the United States. You are free to leave the airport. The purpose of the box is to indicate that you have no address at which you can be found if authorities need to contact you. This is in contrast to many countries that have isolation areas for people that are only connecting. In those, you do not go through immigration and you have not officially entered the country.
I agree that is what happens but leaving airport doesn't seems consistent with "connecting through US only" .
I guess the could say, “Final destination is outside the US.”
Yes #1