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Former Australian police officer Nikki Saroukos said she was “terrified” after being detained, jailed overnight, and deported from the US while trying to visit her American military husband in Hawaii.
Saroukos, who legally entered the US on an ESTA visa waiver for a three-week trip, was stopped at Honolulu Airport and subjected to aggressive questioning, invasive searches, and denied basic rights. “To be mocked and detained like that – it’s appalling,” she told reporters.
Despite having visited Hawaii three times before, she was flagged at customs on her fourth entry.
“He screamed at us, told us to shut up and get to the back of the line,” she recalled of the customs officer.
Her marriage certificate was dismissed, her phone and documents seized, and she was forced to undergo a DNA swab and cavity search.
“I was handcuffed and marched through the airport. They took my jewelry and dignity,” she said.
After being held overnight at a federal detention facility with convicted inmates, Saroukos said, “The inmates treated me better than the officials did.”
She was denied food, phone calls, and basic hygiene supplies. Her husband and mother waited outside the airport for hours with no updates.
Eventually deported, Saroukos was escorted back to Sydney by armed officers and handed her phone only after landing.
“I never want to return to the United States,” she said.
The couple is now seeking legal advice and her husband is considering leaving the US military to move to Australia permanently.
On Monday – in what it said was a “fact check” – Homeland Security said Saroukos’s “recent long-term trips to the United States and suspicious luggage resulted in her being reasonably selected for secondary screening by CBP (Customs and Border Protection)”.
“Officers determined that she was traveling for more than just tourism. She was unable to remember her wedding date just four months prior,” the statement said.
Homeland Security questioned Saroukos’s relationship and the timeframe between her split with her former partner and marriage to her US husband.
It said that during screening, border officers had noted “unusual activity on her phone, including 1000 deleted text messages from her husband because she claimed they caused her ‘anxiety’ “.
“If you attempt to enter the United States under false pretences, there are consequences,” it said.
Saroukos Response to DHS
Saroukos, a former NSW police officer, was “in disbelief at how ridiculous” the Homeland Security statement was. She claimed some of the information had been “twisted”.
“The reasons they came up with were not even justifiable to throw someone in prison anyway,” she told reporters on Monday.
Saroukos strongly denied any plans to live permanently in the US. She said people had missed the point of her story, saying her issue was not that she had been denied entry to the country, but rather how she was treated.
“A country has a right to deport you if they don’t want you in their country, fair enough,” she was quoted as saying.
“But I don’t agree with the treatment … why are you throwing people in prison, why are they being subject to strip searches and cavity searches and being placed in handcuffs, like your rights taken away from you?”
In her interview, Saroukos said the officer checking passports “went from completely composed to just yelling at the top of his lungs, telling my mother to go stand at the back of the line and to … ‘shut up’ ”.
“I automatically started crying, because that was my first response.”
Saroukos said she and her mother were taken to a holding room. Their bags and phones were searched and she was bombarded with questions, including about her former work as a police officer, whether her tattoos were gang-related, and about her husband.
“When I did say that I was married to somebody in the US Army, the officers laughed at me. They thought it was quite comical. I don’t know whether they thought I was telling the truth or not,” she said.
Saroukos was held for more screening, including fingerprints and a DNA swab, while her mother was allowed to go.
She was then denied entry to the US and told she would have to spend the night in prison before being deported back to Australia, she said.
Saroukos said border officials told her they would let her husband know she was being deported – but they never did.
At the prison, she was not allowed to call her husband or mother to let them know what happened.
She said the following morning she was taken back to the airport, where she received a call from the Australian consulate general in Hawaii. Eventually, she was able to speak to her husband by phone.
In April, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued a warning to Australian travelers to the US as an increasing number of would-be visitors are turned back at border control.
It said: “Entry requirements to the USA are strict. US authorities have broad powers to decide if you’re eligible to enter.
“Officials may ask to inspect your electronic devices, emails, text messages or social media accounts. If you refuse, they can deny your entry,” it said.
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