British Muslim student with valid visa refused entry to US after 23-hour detention

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 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.

His local MP, Anneliese Dodds, has raised the case with the UK’s Foreign Office. Muslim and Arab organisations have raised concerns about the treatment of travellers to the US.

The 20-year-old from Oxford said he had booked a one-week, £2,500 visit to Florida’s 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.

US authorities told the Guardian that “inconsistencies were identified” in Alani’s travel history “during inspection” and that he “withdrew his application for admission”.

Alani, however, said his removal from the US was put to him as a “forcefully settled outcome”. 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.

He said: “My 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.”

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 “unable to overcome the presumption he was an intending immigrant.”

Alani, a law student at the University of West London, was taken aside by a CBP official for “secondary inspection” on arrival in the US on 3 July. After nearly 24 hours’ 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.

“I would never have signed it if I understood,” Alani said. “I’m autistic. I’m vulnerable. I’m legally disabled. I have a heart disorder. [The official] doesn’t care. He’s just nonstop interviewing me, nitpicking every single thing you can imagine.

“I felt like I’d been kidnapped. I was threatened with handcuffs. He’s profiled me because I’m Muslim. I count myself lucky I wasn’t shot, deported to another country or beaten.”

A spokesperson for the Muslim Council of Britain said: “It’s 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.”

Last year, there were a number of cases in which foreign nationals were incarcerated in Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] detention centres for weeks. One British tourist Rebecca Burke, 28, was shackled and transported to an ICE detention centre, where she was held for 19 days, after being classed as an “illegal alien” in the US in February 2025. In September last year Karen Newton, then aged 65, was held for six weeks by ICE despite having a valid visa.

Last month the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said it was concerned by reports that CBP officers were demanding access to travellers’ devices.

The Foreign Office said it had provided Alani with consular assistance and it advised British nationals to check the latest USA travel advice before booking.

CBP said staff “adhere to strict protocols”, that Alani was “monitored throughout” and the length of his time in custody “was due to limited flight availability”. A spokesperson said: “Accusations of CBP personnel racially profiling are false. All persons arriving at a US port of entry are subject to inspection by CBP officers.”