All I wanted was to visit my friends in the US... but I was detained for 12 hours and sent back to Australia
An Australian writer has claimed he was turned away from the US border after being grilled on his views on the Gaza conflict and articles he wrote about pro-Palestinian protests.
Alistair Kitchen, 33, boarded a flight from Melbourne to New York to visit friends on June 12 when he was pulled to one side by a Customs and Border Protection officer during a layover in Los Angeles.
He was detained for 12 hours at Los Angeles International Airport before being put on a flight back to Melbourne.
Mr Kitchen said he was refused entry to the US because of his political beliefs, but the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has since said this is 'unequivocally false'.
The writer lived in the US for six years before moving back home to Castlemaine, in regional Victoria, last year, and between 2022 and 2024 he studied at Columbia University.
Mr Kitchen claimed a customs officer told him he was being detained because of his views on the pro-Palestinian rallies that took place on campus at the New York university last year.
'I was interrogated about my beliefs on the crisis in Gaza. I told him what I believe: that the war is a tragedy in which all parties have blood on their hands, but which can and must come to an immediate end,' he wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald.
'One party is dominant, and that party can end the death and destruction today.'
Mr Kitchen recalled being asked to provide the officer with his phone passcode, which he did, and later admitted he regrets.
The content of his phone is said to have been downloaded by border agents, who subsequently found evidence of prior drug use.
He was told he had not declared drug use on his Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) form, was taken to immigration detention and put on a flight home.
Mr Kitchen said he told the agents he had consumed drugs before in New York, where marijuana is legal, and that he had bought weed at dispensaries in the US.
His phone was not returned to him until he landed back on Australian soil.
'The individual in question was denied entry because he gave false information on his [Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA) application] regarding drug use,' a DHS spokesperson told ABC News.
DHS did not specifically deny Mr Kitchen was asked about the Israel-Gaza conflict, but said the US, under President Donald Trump, had the 'most secure border' in American history.
The spokesperson said lawful travellers 'have nothing to fear' from measures intended to protect the US's security.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) warned Australian travellers that entry requirements into the US were 'strict'.
'US authorities have broad powers to decide if you're eligible to enter and may determine that you are inadmissible for any reason under US law,' DFAT's Smarttraveller website reads.
'Officials may ask to inspect your electronic devices, emails, text messages or social media accounts. If you refuse, they can deny your entry.
'You can be refused entry if you provide false information or can't satisfy the officials you're visiting for a valid reason.'
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