Got this fix from think.com:

The following two patches should allow the documented "-I !" option to
skip the ignore lists and import/update all files in the directory.

I need it to force certain files to import (ie, csh.a which is part of
the csh documentation).

gnu/usr.bin/cvs/cvs/ignore.c

@@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ ign_add (ign, hold)
 	 * (saving it if necessary).  We also catch * as a special case in a
 	 * global ignore file as an optimization
 	 */
-	if (isspace (*(ign + 1)) && (*ign == '!' || *ign == '*'))
+	if ((!*(ign+1) || isspace (*(ign+1))) && (*ign == '!' || *ign == '*'))
 	{
 	    if (!hold)
 	    {

gnu/usr.bin/cvs/cvs/import.c

@@ -330,10 +330,14 @@ import_descend (message, vtag, targc, targv)
 	{
 	    while ((dp = readdir (dirp)) != NULL)
 	    {
-		if (ign_name (dp->d_name) || !isdir (dp->d_name))
+		if (!strcmp(".", dp->d_name) || !strcmp("..", dp->d_name))
+		    continue;
+		if (!isdir (dp->d_name) || ign_name (dp->d_name))
 		    continue;
 		err += import_descend_dir (message, dp->d_name,
 					   vtag, targc, targv);
+		/* need to re-load .cvsignore after each dir traversal */
+		ign_add_file (CVSDOTIGNORE, 1);
 	    }
 	    (void) closedir (dirp);
 	}