theguardian.com - Australian with US working visa detained insulted deported

The disaster began at border control in transit in Houston, Texas, when he was pulled aside and taken to a “secondary” room, he says. Posters hanging on the walls that had once celebrated diversity, equity and inclusion, had been crudely updated with a black marker pen, with mentions of DEI scribbled out. About 100 people from around the world sat and lay in various states of worry and exhaustion, he says.

“There were so many people in this room. A heavy percentage of them were from South America. I met a girl from Berlin. There were a bunch of people from Canada. There were two Brits.”

After about half an hour, he says, his name was called out. He was asked if he wanted to call the Australian consulate, but declined.

“I thought I was just going to be given my passport and sent on my way, or maybe asked a couple of questions, but they made some pretty outlandish accusations. They said, ‘We know you have two mobile phones. We’ve been tracking your calls. We know you’ve been selling drugs’.”

He says he told the border officer he did not drink, smoke or take drugs and owned just one phone. He was asked for his passcode.

“That didn’t sound right. I asked to talk to a lawyer and they told me I had no rights.” He says he was given a brochure explaining that he must surrender his phone and so handed it over, along with his smartwatch.

He says things “seemed really fucking weird” but he was careful to remain “overly polite”. He says when he asked the officer to repeat a comment he hadn’t heard, the man replied: “Are you deaf or just retarded?”