An independent Australian journalist and former Columbia University student was detained for 12 hours by US border officials and denied entry into the country because of his writings on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Alistair Kitchen’s misadventure began last week when he arrived at Los Angeles International Airport from Melbourne. He was supposed to travel on to New York.
“I was denied entry, detained, and deported from the USA at the end of last week because of my reporting on the Columbia student protests,” Kitchen wrote on X. The 33-year-old said his name was called over an airport loudspeaker. He was then subjected to a lengthy interrogation about his writings on pro-Palestinian student protests at Columbia University, published on his personal blog, Kitchen Counter. In recent social media posts, the reporter claimed that US agents were “waiting for him.”
“They knew [or it felt like they knew] everything about me,” he explained. “I had scrubbed my online presence expecting ad hoc digital sweeps; I was not prepared for their sophistication, for them having prepared a file on me.”
Kitchen also said that officials told him: “”We both know why you’ve been detained…it’s because of what you wrote about the protests at Columbia.” Immediately afterwards, for about 45 minutes, they asked him questions about his views on Israel, Palestine, Hamas, and his relationships with Jews and Muslims, as well as how he would resolve the conflict in the Middle East.
Kitchen said border agents asked him for his phone’s passcode and accessed his digital content. “I chose to be compliant, and that was an immense mistake,” Kitchen told The Sydney Morning Herald. “I urge all Australians to accept immediate deportation instead of complying with the request to hand over your phone…It is far worse, and if they are asking for your phone, there is no likelihood they will ever let you in.”
Kitchen described the entire experience as “one of the hardest of my life,” saying that the 15-hour flight was followed by 12 hours in detention and then another 15-hour flight to Australia. “I observed the Columbia protests in the capacity of a journalist, but I am not backed by any news org,” he concluded on X. “I published the work on a blog I thought no one reads. Apparently the US Government does.”
