An Aussie writer says he was denied entry into the US after being questioned about his views on the war in Gaza, as well as articles he’d written about pro-Palestine university protests on his personal blog.
Alistair Kitchen had left Melbourne on Thursday bound for New York to visit friends. However, during a stopover in LA, he was detained for 12 hours by border officials before being put on a flight back to Australia.
Kitchen said he was pulled from the line at customs and taken to a backroom, where border agents seized his phone.
He said one border agent remarked “we both know why you’re here, it’s because of what you wrote online”.
While studying at Columbia University in New York last year, Kitchen had written about the pro-Palestinian rallies on campus on his personal blog prior to moving back to Australia.
“The officer that detained me said explicitly to me, ‘The reason we have detained you is because of what you have written on the internet about the protests at Columbia’,” Kitchen told ABC News.
The 33-year-old said he was “interrogated” for over half an hour about his views on the conflict in the Middle East, including questions about his thoughts on Israel, Palestine, Hamas, and of student protests.
“[I was asked] whether I have Jewish friends, whether I have Muslim friends, how I would resolve the conflict in the Middle East,” he said.
He then “made the mistake” of providing his phone passcode — which Kitchen explained came out of sheer stress, and fear — and the contents of his phone were downloaded by border agents.
Agents told him they found evidence of prior drug use, and given he had not declared drug use on his Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) form, he said he was accused of misrepresenting himself.
Kitchen told the ABC he felt panicked in this situation, and explained to the border agent that he had consumed drugs before.
“I told him that, ‘Yes, I have consumed drugs before. I lived in New York for six years where marijuana is legal. I’ve bought weed at dispensaries in the US’,” he said.
“A question on a form that, I think we all know millions of Australians have answered in the same way as I have answered, was used as justification for making sure I didn’t get back on US soil.”
The Australian writer was taken to immigration detention until he could be booked on a flight home. He described this as a nerve-wracking experience, especially as he didn’t know how long he would be detained for.
One woman sitting in a corner of the room said she had been there for four days, a guard told Kitchen.
He was eventually allowed to call the Australian consulate, which informed his mother of the detention, and he was put on a Qantas flight back to Melbourne which landed on Saturday.
In this time, Kitchen did not have access to his phone, and he said it was handed over to the lead flight attendant until he landed.
“I was hoping desperately to be able to call my mum, text my mum, text the people I was meant to stay with in New York,” he told ABC News.
“Instead, the phone was handed over to the lead flight attendant on my flight who told me that she would hang onto the phone and my passport until we landed in Australia.
“The consulate said the attendant may give it back to you on the flight or they may choose to hold onto it, and we don’t know when they choose and why they don’t.”
In an Instagram post on Sunday, Kitchen clarified he had “cleaned up” his online presence prior to the trip, expecting some digital sweeps, although he hadn’t expected the sophistication of the search.
“In retrospect I should have denied search and accepted immediate deportation. In general I was too compliant, too trusting, too hopeful,” he wrote.
He told The Guardian he’d deleted “sensitive political posts” from his blog and social media, given the increased risk of crossing the US border. But he believed border officials were able to use technology to link the posts to his ESTA form.
“Clearly, they had technology in their system which linked those posts to my Esta a long time before I took them down,” he said.
“Because they knew all about the posts, and then interrogated me about the posts once I was there.”
Kitchen cautioned other Australian travellers that “cleaning” their phone and social media ahead of any US travels wouldn’t necessarily mean they would be able to get their Esta form approved upon arrival.
“They had already prepared a file on me and already knew everything about me,” he told The Guardian.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson confirmed they provided consular assistance to an Australian who was refused entry into the US.
“Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment,” they told PEDESTRIAN.TV.
PEDESTRIAN.TV has reached out to Qantas for comment.
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