{"id":36210,"date":"2026-08-18T07:13:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T07:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=36210"},"modified":"2026-08-18T07:13:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T07:13:30","slug":"british-muslim-student-with-valid-visa-refused-entry-to-us-after-23-hour-detention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/?p=36210","title":{"rendered":"British Muslim student with valid visa refused entry to US after 23-hour detention"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Laith Alani, who had booked a week-long trip to visit theme parks and family, believes US border force profiled him on arrival in Orlando<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A British student who was detained and deported after flying to the US claims he was profiled for being Muslim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laith Alani said he felt as if he had been kidnapped when he was interrogated for nine hours and detained in a holding cell for another 14 hours by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at Orlando International Airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His local MP, Anneliese Dodds, has raised the case with the UK\u2019s Foreign Office. Muslim and Arab organisations have raised concerns about the treatment of travellers to the US<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 20-year-old from Oxford said he had booked a one-week, \u00a32,500 visit to Florida\u2019s theme parks, with hopes to meet a relative based in California. Instead, his electronic devices and social media accounts were searched and he was interrogated about his relatives, neighbours, hobbies and travel history before being escorted on to a British Airways flight back to the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US authorities told the Guardian that \u201cinconsistencies were identified\u201d in Alani\u2019s travel history \u201cduring inspection\u201d and that he \u201cwithdrew his application for admission\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alani, however, said his removal from the US was put to him as a \u201cforcefully settled outcome\u201d. He had previously been refused a fast-track ESTA visa waiver after disclosing his travel history to Iraq, where he has relatives, but had been granted a 10-year multi-entry B1\/B2 tourist US visa instead, which allows for tourism and visiting relatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cMy prior travel history was scrutinised in detail, particularly a trip to Tunisia I took in July last year, a month after obtaining my visa. It was implied I needed permission for this travel and should have informed the embassy in advance, despite this being a last-minute trip with no plans in place prior to obtaining my visa.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Guardian has seen correspondence to Alani, in response to a complaint, in which the CBP said an officer determined that Alani, who has a British passport, was inadmissible to the US because he was \u201cunable to overcome the presumption he was an intending immigrant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alani, a law student at the University of West London, was taken aside by a CBP official for \u201csecondary inspection\u201d on arrival in the US on 3 July. After nearly 24 hours\u2019 detention, he was told he would be deported and was given an electronic signature pad to sign, he said. He was then handed a document bearing his signature, which said he had volunteered to withdraw his application to enter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would never have signed it if I understood,\u201d Alani said. \u201cI\u2019m autistic. I\u2019m vulnerable. I\u2019m legally disabled. I have a heart disorder. [The official] doesn\u2019t care. He\u2019s just nonstop interviewing me, nitpicking every single thing you can imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI felt like I\u2019d been kidnapped. I was threatened with handcuffs. He\u2019s profiled me because I\u2019m Muslim. I count myself lucky I wasn\u2019t shot, deported to another country or beaten.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain said: \u201cIt\u2019s now a regular occurrence for many British Muslim families to hear of travellers to US airports holding British citizenship being detained, interrogated for multiple hours and devices being confiscated and searched, often on spurious grounds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, there were several cases\u00a0in which foreign nationals were incarcerated in Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] detention centres for weeks. One British tourist,\u00a0Rebecca Burke, 28, was shackled and transported to an ICE detention centre, where she was held for 19 days, after being classed as an \u201cillegal alien\u201d in the US in February 2025. In September last year,\u00a0Karen Newton<\/a>, then aged 65, was held for six weeks by ICE despite having a valid visa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said it was concerned by reports that CBP officers were demanding access to travellers\u2019 devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Foreign Office said it had provided Alani with consular assistance and it advised British nationals to check the latest USA travel advice<\/a> before booking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CBP said staff \u201cadhere to strict protocols\u201d, that Alani was \u201cmonitored throughout\u201d and the length of his time in custody \u201cwas due to limited flight availability\u201d. A spokesperson said: \u201cAccusations of CBP personnel racially profiling are false. All persons arriving at a US port of entry are subject to inspection by CBP officers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reference Link:- https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/2026\/aug\/17\/british-muslim-student-valid-visa-refused-entry-us-detention<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laith Alani, who had booked a week-long trip to visit theme parks and family, believes US border force profiled him on arrival in Orlando A British student who was detained and deported after flying to the US claims he was profiled for being Muslim. Laith Alani said he felt as if he had been kidnapped […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[33673,33668,33672,33674,33669,33675,33676,349,33671,33670],"class_list":["post-36210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-sample-category","tag-bais-2","tag-britsh","tag-detention-of-23-hours","tag-discrimination-2","tag-muslim-student","tag-unfair-2","tag-unjustice-2","tag-us-2","tag-us-immigration","tag-visa-refusal","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36210"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36211,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36210\/revisions\/36211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gsrra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}