Australian woman’s horror ordeal as US airport officials demand to know if she’s recently had an abortion before DEPORTING her
- Madolline Gourley, from Brisbane, was travelling to Canada for a holiday in June
- During a stopover in Los Angeles, she was interrogated by US border officials
- She was asked whether or not she was pregnant or had recently had an abortion
- Ms Gourley was told her plans to house sit in Canada breached visa conditions
- She was told her entry was denied and sent back home on a plane five hours later
An Australian woman travelling through the United States says she was detained and questioned about her abortion history before being deported.
Madolline Gourley, from Brisbane, stopped over in Los Angeles on June 30 on her way to Canada for a holiday, where she planned to house-and-cat sit in exchange for accommodation.
But while in the airport, she was approached by US border officials and taken to a detention room where she was patted down, fingerprinted, photographed, and interrogated – including being asked if she was pregnant.
‘She was walking me from one room to the next, and she asked the pregnancy question again,’ Ms Gourley told Guardian Australia.
Madolline Gourley (pictured) says she was questioned about her abortion history then deported during a recent stopover in the United States
‘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?’
‘I don’t know the thought process behind that … I just thought, ‘’What’s the relevance of that to my situation?”
Ms Gourley was told her entry had been denied as she had breached the conditions of the visa waiver program, which allows Australians and citizens of many other countries to travel to the US for short trips without getting a visa.
She was sent back home on the next flight to Brisbane several hours later.
A spokesperson for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said under the visa waiver program, applications are banned from ‘any type of employment or getting compensation for services rendered’.
Ms Gourley, who has previously travelled through the US with the same house and cat sitting company, said she was shocked the service breached the visa program’s rules.
US border officials took Ms Gourley into an interrogation room after she arrived at Los Angeles (pictured) on June 30
She is now warning others to be aware of the potential ramifications of pet or house sitting in North America.
In response to questions about Ms Gourley’s treatment, a CBP spokesperson said ‘the department regrets any inconvenience or unpleasantness a passenger may have experienced during his/her CBP processing’.
‘We take allegations of unprofessional behaviour seriously,’ the spokesperson said.
‘CBP has standard procedures for handling allegations of misconduct. If we confirm employee misconduct, we will take firm and appropriate action to correct the situation.’
Ms Gourley said she was shocked when she was told her plans to cat-sit as accommodation were considered a breach of the US’s visa waiver program
The alarming allegations come just weeks after Victorian student Jack Dunn, 23, was strip searched and placed in jail in the US for more than 30 hours after breaching a little-known travel rule.
Upon his arrival, Mr Dunn was asked by a CBP officer if he had a plane ticket to leave the US, which he didn’t, as he planned to book his flights on the go.
After explaining his next flight was booked to Mexico, Mr Dunn was swiftly handcuffed and taken to the Federal Detention Centre in Honolulu after officers concluded he didn’t meet the entry requirements.
The youth worker hadn’t realised that under the Visa Waiver Program travellers must have another ticket out of the US to any other foreign port or place that is not a bordering country or an adjacent island.
He was ordered to catch the next flight to Sydney, which was the following day, meaning he was forced to stay overnight in a detention centre.
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