The Australian expelled from us, says that he was “targeted” due to writing on protests from pro-Palestine students | Australia News

An Australian who was detained on his arrival at Los Angeles airport and was expelled in Melbourne, said that officials of the American border told him that this was due to his writing on pro-Palestine demonstrations by university students.

Alistair Kitchen said that he left Melbourne on Thursday for New York and that he had been detained for 12 hours and questioned by American customs and border protection officials (CBP) during the stopover in Los Angeles.

The 33 -year -old said that he was “clearly targeted for politically motivated reasons” and said the officials had spent more than 30 minutes to question his opinions about Israel and Palestine, including his “thoughts on Hamas”.

Kitchen said that the officials asked him for his “reflections on the conflict in a very broad sense”, including on the student demonstrators, which Israel should have done differently “and” how I resolve the conflict “.

“It was a fairly in-depth investigation of my opinions on war,” he said.

Kitchen said he was expelled and landed in Melbourne on Saturday morning.

“The CBP explicitly told me that the reason you were detained is because of your writing on the student demonstrations of Columbia,” he told Guardian Australia on Sunday. The American Department of Internal Security has been contacted for comments.

Kitchen said he lived in New York for six years and wrote on the demonstrations organized in support of Gaza at Columbia University while he was a master’s degree in college, before returning to Australia in 2024.

“Because I was a creative writing student, I took the opportunity to attend the demonstrations and I wrote about them in depth on my personal blog,” he said.

This year, Kitchen published an article on his blog, Kitchen Counter, on the detention by the Ministry of Internal Security of Mahmoud Khalil, the main negotiator of the Solidarity Camp of Columbia Gaza.

In the article, Kitchen said that Khalil had been arrested “on terrains completely specious by a neo-fascist state” with the aim of “the expulsion of dissent”.

He referred to the executive decree of the Trump administration of January 30 in which the government has promised to go “the offense to enforce the law and order” and “cancel student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on university campuses”.

Kitchen, who planned to return to New York for two weeks to visit friends, said that he had suppressed the “sensitive political publications” from his blog as well as “certain social media” because he was aware of the increased risk of crossing the American border.

However, he thought that officials of the American borders had used technology to link his positions to his request for an electronic travel authorization system (ESTA), which allows eligible visitors to make a short trip to the United States without visa.

He said he was called on the intercom shortly after leaving the plane at Los Angeles International Airpot and “taken in a back room” for secondary treatment

“Obviously, they had technology in their system that linked these messages to my Esta … long before removing them,” he said. “Because they knew everything about the messages, then asked me about the messages once I was there.”

Kitchen said he wanted other Australians to be aware that the “cleaning” of their phones would not necessarily mean that they could approve their esta on arrival in the United States.

“They had already prepared a file on me and already knew everything about me,” he said.

Kitchen said he had agreed to give those responsible for his phone password, which he has now regretted.

“At that time, the bad and the false hope that I realized that I had, you know, just an Australian writer and not a threat to the United States, they would let me enter,” he said, “he said. “But then they removed my phone and started downloading it and looking for it.”

Kitchen said those officials told him that they “had discovered evidence of drug use” on his phone.

He said he had previously checked “no” at his request for an ESTA to a question asking travelers if they have already consumed drugs, as “I probably believe that millions of Australians have done so before”.

The writer said he felt “terrified”, confused and tired and was afraid of being surprised lying so he admitted to the interview: “Ok, yes, I did drugs in the past.”

Kitchen said he had told officials that he had already bought marijuana in New York State, where he was legal and had consumed drugs in other countries.

“There is certainly no evidence that I take drugs on my phone,” he said. “But it is an interrogation method that uses trapping.”

Another Australian expelled from the United States earlier this year said that he had also faced “bizarre accusations” of drug trafficking when border officials wanted to search his phone.

Kitchen said he was “terrified by reprisals and reprisals from the American government” for talking about his experience, but he wanted people to know what had happened.

He urged other Australians detained on their arrival in the United States to accept “immediate expulsion” instead of putting their phones back on border officials.

He said that he had put online “incriminated publications” on his blog.

Kitchen said that his phone and passport had been given to a Qantas on -board agent at the start of his expulsion flight and that he could not recover them until they land in Melbourne.

Qantas confirmed that its staff had received a sealed envelope of American customs customs containing the personal items of the passenger who were returned upon arrival in Australia.

The airline refused to comment more.