Australian passing through US asked if she had an abortion and then deported - report

[Soph0571]

The 31-year-old alleged that after being patted down, fingerprinted and photographed, one of the US border security officials asked her whether she was pregnant.

“She was walking me from one room to the next, and she asked the pregnancy question again,” Ms Gourley said. “I don’t know if she had forgotten, or she wanted to work out if I was lying or something. I said no, and she looked at me again and said, ‘Have you recently had an abortion?’

that to my situation?’”

Subsequently, she was informed that she would not be allowed in the country as she had breached the visa waiver programme.

A spokesperson for the US Customs and Border Protection told the outlet that the visa waiver programme prohibited applicants from engaging “in any type of employment or get compensation for services rendered”.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/australian-passing-through-us-asked-if-she-had-an-abortion-and-then-deported-report/ar-AAZwSOP?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=b278e6e4237f477eaa271f559c0eda52

Nothing to worry about here folks... Nothing at all...

[mainer]

1. She has a long-running blog about her travels

Ms Gourley has toured across Australia and the US spending next to nothing by offering her housesitting services and looking after people’s pets while they’re away.

The enterprising writer from Brisbane, who also runs a blog titled One Cat at a Time, says she has saved around A$28,000 (£16,050) in accommodation costs to date by using the site TrustedHouseSitters.

“While house and catsitting for strangers has saved me thousands of dollars on accommodation-related expenses, I still need money to pay for things like my airfares to and from sits,” Ms Gourley had told The Independent last month.

[LeftInTX]

2. Happened in Los Angeles

Madolline Gourley, a Brisbane resident, says she was treated like a criminal during her transit through Los Angeles on 30 June, where she was detained at the border due to suspicions about her intention to house- and cat-sit in exchange for accommodation while holidaying in Canada.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/13/have-you-recently-had-an-abortion-australian-transiting-through-us-questioned-then-deported


If just catching a connecting flight to Canada why did she go through customs?
Did she not have a connecting flight?

Not acceptable that she was asked about being pregnant etc.


She tried to enter the US on a Visa-Waiver program and she apparently was violating the terms of the Visa-Waiver program by earning money as a cat sitter, so she was denied entry to the US.

[sanatanadharma]

3. Defacto, regardless of law and customs, the being behind the badge becomes the bully ...

... (or buddy). It all comes down to the human being acting the role in the moment. Be it TSA, Border and Customs, cop on the beat, parking patrol on the street, it is the one flawed individual acting the enlarged role of "Jeje", who creates disturbance for reasons unseen.

[mitch96]

4. It can get pretty hairy at the border. This Polish/UK world traveler was detained and handcuffed

at the Texas/Mexico border.. She was eventually released and thinks it may be b/c she spent time in Pakistan. Uff
m

[LeftInTX]

5. Bollywood Superstar Shah Rukh Khan has been detained three times

https://variety.com/2016/film/asia/shah-rukh-khan-detained-by-u-s-immigration-again-1201836329/

He has made several films in the US. He was also detained on his way to a speaking engagement at Yale.

He comes to the US frequently enough that sometimes he gets detained and sometimes he doesn't.

“Whenever I start feeling too arrogant about myself, I always take a trip to America,” he had said in his address. “The immigration guys kicked the star out of stardom.”


“Secondary screening” is a standard procedure followed by most countries. A secondary screening is done if a passenger triggers an alarm of any kind during the first-stage primary checking. He or she is asked to step aside for a secondary check.

Former Indian defence minister George Fernandes was strip-searched at Dulles International Airport in Washington DC twice, in 2002 and in 2003. https://www.hindustantimes.com/bollywood/thrice-in-7-years-shah-rukh-khan-detained-again-at-us-airport/story-inJ668Q4o3t4CbF0rgS3pL.html

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

6. She may have been asked if she'd had an abortion,

but that is no why she was deported.

[SharonClark]

7. Beyond the abortion-related questions the requirements for passthroughs are ridiculous.

From the Guardian article:

Last month the Guardian reported that Jack Dunn, a Victorian student, had been denied entry to the US, cavity searched, sent to prison alongside criminals and then deported. He had breached a little-known rule requiring those entering on the visa waiver to have booked either a return flight or onward travel to a country that does not border the US.

Gourley has previously travelled through the US while volunteering through the same house- and cat-sitting service, TrustedHousesitters, without any problem.

She said she was initially quizzed about why she was returning so soon after spending two and a half months in the US between January and April, travel that fitted well within the 90-day window allowed for each visit.

There was a story a year or so ago about a person flying from the UK to Canada and the plane was diverted to the US. She had the same visa issue although she was never scheduled to land in the US.

[Retrograde]

9. US Immigration can be very sticky about the visa waiver program

Citizens of certain countries are allowed to enter the US without getting a visa first, provided they stay less than 90 days and don't work for pay. There are people who think they've found a way around the system: I know one person who would come to the US every few months, work as a consultant (she had her clients deposit the pay directly to a UK bank account), then when the 90 days were nearly over, leave for Canada or some other country for a few weeks. She kept this up for several years, until an immigration agent noticed the pattern. Not only was she denied entrance at the time, she was banned from returning to the US in the future.

[cbabe]

8. Quota system for tsa etc.? And the time

it took six agents to examine my Trader Joe’s sandwich in the wrapper.

Maybe should’ve had tsa at the Capitol on jan6…