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Coffee,
Tea or Handcuffs?
An
Australian journalist gets a taste of Department of Homeland Security

hospitality
by
Steven Mikulan

Sue
Smethurst enjoys traveling. ï¿½Itï¿½s one of the things about my job that
I
absolutely love,ï¿½ says the 30-year-old Australian, who works as an

associate editor for the womenï¿½s magazine New Idea. She doesnï¿½t even
mind
flying. ï¿½Itï¿½s one of the great pleasures of the world to be able to turn

off your
cell phone and be where no one can annoy you.ï¿½

But when
her Qantas flight from Melbourne, Australia, touched down at
LAX
around 8 a.m. on Friday, November 14, Smethurst found herself

nightmarishly annoyed ï¿½ by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Smethurst was supposed to continue to New York and on Monday

interview singer Olivia Newton-John. Smethurst had honeymooned in

Manhattan last year

and was
looking forward to a long, free weekend ï¿½having a good walk
through
Central Park, getting a decent bowl of chicken soup and going

Christmas shopping ï¿½ all those gorgeous New York things.ï¿½ Better still,
her
six-hour
layover in L.A. would allow her to have lunch with her American
literary
agent.

ï¿½I had a
room booked at the Airport Hilton,

where I
was going to my leave bags, shower and get a cup of coffee.ï¿½

But
first she had to clear LAXï¿½s immigration check-in, which she reached
after 20
minutes in line. An officer from the DHSï¿½s newly minted Customs
and
Border Protection (CBP) bureau studied the travelerï¿½s declaration form

Smethurst had filled out on the plane.

ï¿½Oh,
youï¿½re a journalist,ï¿½ he noted. ï¿½What are you here for?ï¿½

ï¿½Iï¿½m
interviewing Olivia Newton-John,ï¿½ Smethurst replied.

ï¿½Thatï¿½s
nice,ï¿½ the official said, impressed. ï¿½Whatï¿½s the article about?ï¿½

ï¿½Breast
cancer.ï¿½

When
Smethurst tells me this, she pauses and adds, ï¿½I thought that last
question
was a little odd, but figured everythingï¿½s different now in America
and it
was fine.ï¿½ What she didnï¿½t know was that her assignment and travel
plans,
along with the chicken soup and stroll through Central Park, had
been
terminated the moment she confirmed she was a journalist. Fourteen
hours
later, she was escorted by three armed guards onto the 11 p.m.
Qantas
flight home.

ï¿½

ï¿½I want
to say right off that I adore America and love Americans,ï¿½

Smethurst says. Still, she remains perplexed and emotionally bruised by
what
followed in Terminal Four. The CBP agent who read Smethurstï¿½s

travelerï¿½s questionnaire took her to a secondary inspection area 30 feet

away and
told her to wait, then left for half an hour. He returned with

additional uniformed staff who, professionally and pleasantly enough,
asked
more questions.

What
sort of stories did she write? What kind of magazine was New Idea?

Where
was it published? What was its circulation? Does it print politically

sensitive articles? When would her interview appear? Who would be
reading
it?

ï¿½I
laughed,ï¿½ Smethurst recalls, ï¿½because weï¿½re a cross between Good

Housekeeping and People magazine. The most political thing weï¿½d likely
print
was Laura Bushï¿½s horoscope.ï¿½

The
polite interrogation continued. Who was her father? His occupation?
Her
motherï¿½s maiden name and occupation? What were their dates of
birth,
where did they live?

The
agents gravely nodded at Smethurstï¿½s replies and left once more,

promising to return. When they came back half an hour later, one of the
officers
offered Smethurst a cup of airport coffee.

ï¿½I
thought at that stage something was quite wrong,ï¿½ Smethurst says, ï¿½so I
asked
the man with the coffee if there was some problem.ï¿½

ï¿½I will
tell you when thereï¿½s a problem,ï¿½ he abruptly snapped, according to

Smethurst. Then he pointed to a nearby sign:

Your
Silence Is Appreciated

At about
noon, CBP informed Smethurst she would be denied entrï¿½e into
the
United States: While Australian tourists visiting the United States are

visa-waived for 90 days, working journalists need a special I-Visa,
which

Smethurst had not been aware of and did not possess. She had, after all,

flown
into LAX on the same passport eight times previously without

incident. Now she was being asked to raise her right hand and swear that

her
answers had been truthful, then was fingerprinted and photographed
ï¿½ every
time she comes to America, her swiped passport will bring up this

documentation of her rejection. As Smethurstï¿½s inked fingers were rolled

onto the
government form, she noticed its heading:

ï¿½Criminal.ï¿½

Eventually she was escorted under armed guard to a pay phone to make
the call
she vainly believed would clear everything up and allow her to stay
in the
country. Then, while conversations were occurring among her
husband,
editor and consul officers in L.A., Smethurstï¿½s baggage was

thoroughly searched and a makeup bag temporarily confiscated. She was
then
handcuffed and marched through the airport to another terminal,
where
LAXï¿½s main detention center is located.

After
the phone call she pleaded for food, having now been away from
home
nearly 24 hours. Smethurst offered money for a snack to be brought
to her ï¿½
French fries, potato chips, anything ï¿½ but was refused.

ï¿½Would
it be possible to get a cup of tea?ï¿½ she asked. This too was denied,
because
it could be used as a weapon ï¿½ someone, it was explained, had
recently
thrown hot coffee into an agentï¿½s face. When she requested a cup
of cold
tea, she was similarly refused, although no one could explain to her
how a
cup of cold water could become weaponized.

Finally,
around 6 p.m., a ï¿½detention mealï¿½ was pulled from a fridge,

consisting of an orange, fruit-box drink and a roll that, Smethurst
says, ï¿½I
could
play golf with.ï¿½

For a
while she sat in the main detention center, unable to eat the food, as
eight
armed guards watched TV. Then one of the staff returned with a bag
of
takeout and began eating a hamburger and fries in front of her. ï¿½ 21

ï¿½At that
stage,ï¿½ she says, ï¿½I just lost the plot completely and threw the roll
into the
bin in front of me with sheer, utter frustration.ï¿½

The CBP
would later call this gesture a ï¿½tantrumï¿½; Smethurst, in turn,
claims
that she was thoroughly body searched by female staff each time
she was
moved from one part of LAX to another, and that she broke down
in tears
several times, swearing to her captors that she was not a criminal,
had done
nothing wrong and should be allowed in the country. She also
says one
sympathetic staff member told her sheï¿½d simply had bad luck in
getting
the agent she did at the first customs station, since the I-Visa rule
was
enforced at the discretion of agents. Smethurst could have entered the
country
by simply declaring herself a tourist on her travelerï¿½s form ï¿½ a
routine
practice among reporters entering the U.S.

Eventually, Smethurstï¿½s release was won by the Consul Generalï¿½s Office.
The
consulate also gained one other concession ï¿½ the cup of tea sheï¿½d
begged
for. It was prepared by a senior CBP official whom Smethurst
thought
was the kindest American sheï¿½d met that day.

ï¿½It was
the best cup of tea Iï¿½d ever had,ï¿½ she says. ï¿½I didnï¿½t waste a drop.ï¿½

ï¿½

There
is, naturally, an official version that differs from Sue Smethurstï¿½s

description of the events that day, but a spokesman for the Homeland
Security
Departmentï¿½s Customs and Border Protection bureau said he did
not want
to ï¿½spend time on he-said, she-said charges.ï¿½

ï¿½She did
become abusive,ï¿½ CBP spokesperson Michael Fleming told me,
however.
ï¿½We tried to calm her down. Handcuffing is a standard procedure
because
sometimes good people can do potentially violent things. Itï¿½s not
our
intent to parade passengers on a perp walk ï¿½ Sue Smethurst is not a

criminal. Itï¿½s important for journalists to know to enter the U.S. on

assignment they cannot apply under the visa-waiver program. They have
to do
their homework.ï¿½

When
Smethurst returned to Melbourne, camera crews were waiting ï¿½ all
major
Australian media outlets reported her ordeal. The story was treated
as an
example of bureaucratic arrogance run amok, because many parts
of the
world are still outraged by what happens at American airports to

foreigners ï¿½ and to many Americans. (Last September, the CBP at LAX
detained
the Australian-born wife of a U.S. Navy sailor for five days, while
also
briefly denying her infant daughter food and medical attention.)

Smethurst says sheï¿½s received hundreds of messages from fellow

Australians claiming similar treatment at the hands of U.S. immigration

officials and knows of two fellow journalists who were sent back to

Australia. When Smethurstï¿½s editor, who planned to visit the United
States
on
business, inquired about obtaining an I-Visa, she was told it would not
be
necessary. She is going to get one anyway.

Smethurst says U.S. ambassador Tom Schaeffer privately apologized to
her for
her treatment, but will not do so in public. Not that it matters much
ï¿½ the
only U.S. press coverage of Smethurstï¿½s ordeal was found in an
Atlanta
Constitution squib culled from the Australian Associated Press.
Before
November 14, she and her husband had planned to return to
America
to celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary, but, as she
learned,
everythingï¿½s different now in America.

ï¿½We
decided to stay in Australia and celebrate here,ï¿½ she says. ï¿½There was
always
the chance we could have got the same customs officer if we flew
to
America.ï¿½
-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM WED 8-9PM PST

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