'Have you recently had an abortion?' Australian transiting through US questioned then deported

[Nevilledog]

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

No paywall
https://archive.ph/Uumln


An Australian woman who planned to house-sit in Canada during a holiday has said she was detained, fingerprinted, interrogated about her abortion history and quickly deported during a stopover in the US.

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.

Gourley was held in a detention room, interrogated twice, patted down, fingerprinted and photographed.

At one point a US border official asked Gourley, who was wearing a loose-fitting dress, whether she was pregnant. The same question was repeated as she was moved between rooms. When she again told the US officials she was not pregnant, Gourley was asked whether she had had an abortion.

“She was walking me from one room to the next, and she asked the pregnancy question again,” Gourley told Guardian Australia. “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?’

*snip*


Why would anyone want to visit our travel through the US?

[Hekate]

1. Reading other replies, I also question details of her story.

Last edited Wed Jul 13, 2022, 02:52 AM - Edit history (2)

[BComplex]

2. That's gotta be bullshit. Nobody in Los Angeles would have ANY authority to question

such a person on a plane/in transit like that. Nobody in the entire USA has that authority.

[Hamlette]

3. and no federal authority would do it

sounds like more than one person was involved. I call BS too. The Airport is under federal control.

[AZLD4Candidate]

18. No. . .this is real. Happened to my wife. They legally do not have to let you in.

[Dorian Gray]

31. They asked your

wife if she had an abortion?

[SickOfTheOnePct]

39. True, they don't have to let you in

and I've followed all of the issues with your wife, and it's horrendous how your family has suffered.

That doesn't mean this story is true.

[ecstatic]

7. Agreed. Are there any other victims of this type of treatment?

First red flag is we're talking about LAX, although I can't picture that happening in any states right now. I think maybe she needed an excuse to get out of the cat sitting arrangement and came up with that because she saw the news reports and lumped the ENTIRE United States together as Gilead. We're headed there, but we're not there yet.

[AZLD4Candidate]

17. My wife in Seattle when she tried to join me to do her Green Card here.

[pnwmom]

28. They asked her in Seattle if she'd had an abortion? n/t

[Scrivener7]

34. Your wife was trying to join you, though. This woman was passing through on the

way to Canada and they are saying her plans to house-sit in Canada violate US Visa policy.

That's bullshit.

[JI7]

9. Yes, seems questionable . She also says detained at the border in Los Angeles

I only read the part posted but it seems confusing .

[enough]

37. Read the whole article.

[AZLD4Candidate]

19. The law gives them 100% authority to deny entry for any reason or no reason.

They did it to my wife in SEATAC.

[AZLD4Candidate]

24. They can ask anything. They can demand to see your phone and go through your photos

They can ask you anything they want, since that's what two Democrats wrote into the law in 1952 as an anti-immigration immigration law that was passed over Truman's veto.

Pat McCarran and Francis Walter wrote it and got it railroaded through Congress at the height of McCarthyism. Those at the border have 100% authority with no oversight and no checks on their power.

McCarran hated the Jews, foreigners, communists, and the Chinese in that order.
Walter later became the head of the Pioneer Fund which financed that awful Charles Murray book "The Bell Curve."

[Rstrstx]

4. This is the reason the Dobbs ruling is not going to go away by the midterms

Prepare for more and more stories like this.

[Hamlette]

5. ah, makes sense. I had a similar situation

used to take art classes from a South African. When she said she was traveling to US to teach a class they sent her home.

she apparently needed a special type of visa and got one which worked once but even though she was told it would be good for one year, when she tried a second trip, she was sent back again.

Happened with other artists/craftspersons. So stupid but we take those things seriously. I'm thinking it was the cat sitting for free rent, not the suspected abortion.

[Retrograde]

10. Other countries have similar restrictions

when I worked for a multi-national US-based corporation we were told when traveling abroad on business that we were there to "meet with company employees and customers". Any mention of teaching raised red flags and meant a lot of paperwork, at best.

I agree that the cat sitting for free rent set off the trigger. Stick with vagaries like "vacation" or "touristing" or "visiting friends" (although that once triggered a British customs person to delve into how I met these friends: American scientist doing a sabbatical at Cambridge seemed to satisfy him, but not everyone has that connection)

[ancianita]

13. Seriously? Why should people mangle their own privacy to accommodate autocratic inquisitors?

First of all, it's none of border people's fucking business.

Are we supposed to allow some slow roll autocratic erosion of personal boundaries when we cross borders? Since when is any border crossing supposed to be a personal inquisition, and why should our State Department or Homeland Security even let this become commonplace?

If it's okay for this side to do it to our allies' citizens, we ourselves will be next when we want to leave.

WTF

[AZLD4Candidate]

25. It is perfectly okay. The constitution does not apply at the border. That's how the law was written

They can do it to our allies' citizens, foreign spouses of American citizens, and even American citizens.

That's how Walter/McCarran wrote the law in 1952.

I've been posting about crap like this for over two years going through the legal immigration process to reunite with my wife and get her Green Card.

Our "legal" immigration system is completely broken yet all we hear about are DREAMers and a pathway to citizenship. Those going through our legal immigration system are never heard from because there is NO appeal and NO oversight.

[ancianita]

36. Terrible.

I feel for both of you, AZ. Good lord....

[Meowmee]

53. yes, they can pretty much do whatever they want to

My brother was detained for two hours for an interview when he returned here from going to school in Germany as a post doc or something to that effect. They harassed him for two hours saying he had not paid his taxes here and the only place you are allowed to study abroad when leaving the US was somewhere in the middle east, yes this really happened. This was before he had US citizenship I believe and had only his Canadian citizenship and a green card here. They can do whatever they want and do! Maybe it would have been different if he had had US citizenship then as well, which we have dual now, and have for many years. Eventually the idiots gave up and let him go since they had NO LEGAL right nor reason to hold him or stop him from entering the country.

I was the first to apply. My father also was robbed in Chile when on a conference, his passport was stolen not long before his flight home. He had dual citizenship then and I think he escaped a hassle but I can't really remember it now.

[Meowmee]

12. The cat sitting for rent

Was in Canada, she was only transiting through. If this actually happened it was illegal. It sounds like more out of control border agents. We have been harassed by the Us and Canada border agents coming in and out on 1-2 occasions. For no valid reason, which is what this sounds like. Not sure about the abortion stuff but that seems to be par for the course now, certainly no one would travel here to have an abortion, you would have to be crazy.

What you should say in this situation is, I am going to visit my friend for a while, end of story. You are not obligated to say you are petsitting etc. or a cat/ dog is involved as far as I know.

[Deuxcents]

6. Aside from violating her privacy, could these "Border Patrol"

People be someone else in disguise? Like some radical sect against abortion? Hope she finds out n sues.

[AZLD4Candidate]

26. She has no legal standing to sue. CBP can deny entry for any reason and no reason under the law

[JI7]

8. "her transit through Los Angeles on 30 June, where she was detained at the border "

What Border is she referring to ?

[ancianita]

14. If she's Australian, the border is where the Pacific meets the land of Los Angeles.

[BigmanPigman]

20. Does she mean Customes and not Border?

[AZLD4Candidate]

27. No. Immigration stamps you in. Customs just makes sure you're not skirting tax laws

duty laws, or bringing in illegal contraband.

[Dorian Gray]

32. If you're transiting

to a different country, you don't go through immigration and customs. You go to a transit lounge. (Unless you're transit involves a layover for a few days.)

[Ace Rothstein]

41. We don't have transit lounges in the US in the sense that other places do.

Everyone entering the US needs to go through immigration and customs whether staying here or transiting through.

[liberalla]

11. There is definitely something amiss with this story but I don't know what it is.

[ancianita]

15. Agree. Something about this report and the event is off.

[AZLD4Candidate]

16. Sounds like what those bastards did to my wife in Seattle

And the law is written that there is no oversight or appeal. Their decision is final.

Yet no one seems to care about the abuses of our legal immigration system. After all, as Mark Kelly's office told me "the law is the law."

When I said, "so what the fugitive slave law, anti-miscegenation laws, and the Chinese Exclusion Act," I got silence. Apparently, blindly defending xenophobic laws is acceptable.

BTW, it will take my wife another ten days to get here to Bangkok to work and reunite.

They rejected our marriage certification for a third time in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

[BigmanPigman]

21. What will you do now?

[AZLD4Candidate]

22. We gave up on the US in May and will reunite to live and work in Bangkok.

We gave up on China as well.

i'm already living and working in Bangkok. She will be here in a couple of weeks as soon as the Thai embassy authenticates her documents, which is pretty much a formality.

She has her contract, we have our apartment.

It will take her a month to do for Thailand what has taken over 18 months for us to not get done in the land of immigration. . .reunite.

[BigmanPigman]

23. What a hassle.

I'm glad you're both flexible.

[pnwmom]

29. What a nightmare. I'm sorry! How did you meet your wife? n/t

[AZLD4Candidate]

45. At a supermarket in Nanjing when I worked at the Rape of Nanking Memorial Hall.

[Ilsa]

44. I've been following your story.

I remember when you essentially threw your hands up and gave up on USA. I'm happy you'll be reunited in Bangkok.

[ecstatic]

30. I'm sorry that happened

I'm glad you will finally be reunited after your long ordeal. I am so extremely disappointed and disgusted about what's happening on all of our borders. I thought it was just the southern coast where people were being treated inhumanely. Uggh.

[Scrivener7]

33. Very fishy story. LA is not known for it's evangelicals, plans to house sit in Canada have nothing

to do with US Visa policy. She was just passing through on the way to Canada.

This just doesn't make sense.

[haele]

46. TSA and Border Patrol pretty much have license to do what they want.

Some evangelical Qaren type could take a dislike to the traveller and start asking stupid, intrusive religious based questions to give the Quaren some reason to deny the entry based on the traveller "not showing respect" or "being combative", or whatever the hell power-tripping cop types use to justify petty, harmful harassment of people they decide they don't like.

Oh, the TSA officer might get half a point down on their annual evaluation due to complaints over the year, but it's no real biggie to them getting complaints for the unwarranted pain and suffering they cause others. They've got immunity, after all....

Haele

[Scrivener7]

55. But they are saying she was deported because her house sitting plans IN CANADA violated

US Visa rules.

That's ridiculous.

[Sympthsical]

35. It sounds like she was trying to be slick about her visa waiver

Didn't like how that went, and now we get this story which is curiously topical.

Because a lot of this doesn't add up.

As someone who travels and who has out of country friends travel to and from the U.S. frequently for various periods of time, the U.S. immigration system does not fuck around with people trying to be cute about restrictions. When you come in with those 90 days, and she was close to those 90 days being up, they're going to start asking questions. It sounds like she didn't have great answers.

So, what's the over/under that someone feeling entitled didn't like being told no, and we got a tale out of it? Because, I'm leaning hard in that direction.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

38. Borders are violence.

Also why are people confused about a "border" in Los Angeles?

[Sympthsical]

40. Yeah, airports are "a border" when traveling

It depends on the country, but even just passing through an airport you can end up dealing with immigration. They really vary on how stringent they want to be. Stockholm didn't care what I did. New Zealand had a lot of questions. Australia is my favorite. Just scan your passport at a kiosk and go on your merry way.

[MrsCoffee]

42. According to officials, she had breached the conditions of the visa waiver program.

https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/aussie-woman-madolline-gourley-asked-if-she-has-had-an-abortion-before-being-deported-from-us/news-story/6cfa13737b3cd8d20eb88663b697cda6

A spokesperson for US Customs and Border Protection said the visa waiver program prohibited applicants from engaging “in any type of employment or get compensation for services rendered”. The CBP spokesperson said it took “allegations of unprofessional behaviour seriously”.

She has been interviewed and writes about how much money she saves traveling to cat sit in North America. I assume it’s considered employment or compensation of sorts.

I have a really hard time believing anyone is getting asked about abortions in California. If she is telling the truth, I hope the agent is fired at the least.

[Scrivener7]

56. Which means this wasn't just a plane change on her way to house sit in Canada. Which is

how the article describes it.

[Stinky The Clown]

43. I call bullshit on this. However, I have no clue as to motive.

[mainer]

47. She's not the only Aussie to face horror from CBP

From the article:

Gourley’s is the latest horror story to emerge from Australians who have briefly transited through the US on their way to neighbouring countries.
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.

I don't know why ANY visitor would want to come to the US right now.

btw, what's this stupid rule that you can't house-sit for someone in Canada?

[milestogo]

48. Are there no cat-sitters in Canada?

[mainer]

49. She writes a blog about traveling as a cat-sitter

Personally, I think it's a quirky and enterprising way to see the world.

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.

“That means I spend the other, less exciting part of my life working a regular Monday to Friday job in Brisbane, Australia, putting money aside for my next adventure.”

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216919903#post1

[Sympthsical]

51. She just straight up violates her visa

Yeah, I'm not sure why the Guardian even published this one. Sounds like a disgruntled traveler violating visa got caught, didn't like it, but in the most amazing timing ever - and not at all designed to get attention - this suspicious incident happens.

We need to be better about spreading stories just because they are consonant with our politics.

In a similar vein, that Ohio story about the ten year-old isn't looking great. People were just a mite concerned someone raped a child, went looking for the rapist, and . . . Well. They're still looking.

[mainer]

52. Doesn't this make all house exchanges illegal?

If I exchange my home for one in a foreign country, isn't that a violation? It's an exchange of services.

Just like this woman cat-sitting is an exchange of services.

[Sympthsical]

54. I honestly don't know

I mean, cat-sitting is a job. So that seems a pretty clear cut violation.

Maybe house swapping isn't considered a service in the same way? I have friends who live in Italy who do this once every year or so for a month in the summer to visit friends and family stateside.

We also only have what the article gives us. Maybe this person was doing other things that have been omitted from the story.

[mainer]

50. Her blog about cat sitting

I think it sounds like an enterprising way to travel. No money is exchanged, just services.

https://onecatatatime.co