Shae B

My friend from Australia was detained for 7/8 hours and then flown out because he didn't have enough cash on hand. (he had 100 Australian dollars which is wort about 165 in current USD) He ha the tickets for his return flight, he was staying with "family" so no hotel needed, we were gonna provide his food cause staying in family home, plus he was gonna receive $200 a week. None of that was good enough--- This is a copy of his girlfriend's post on FB today about it Today was supposed to be the most amazing early start to my birthday month. My amazing boyfriend flew from Sydney, Aus. and was supposed to meet me in Dallas this morning at 4:35am. He made it to LAX at about 4pm yesterday, and was supposed to have an approixmately 7 hour layover. He was detained by US CBP (customs and border "protection") for being poor. No I'm not joking. I wish I was joking. He was asked at the border how much cash he had. When he responded "none," they automatically assumed he has no money, which was far from correct. His meals, lodging, and transportation, both on the ground and to return to Australia were covered. He had money of his own to spend on anything of his choosing, as well as money coming to him weekly from home. US CBP decided that his money was not enough and therefore he would be at risk of "violating the terms of the visa" that he had been granted before he left Australia. They refused to contact myself, his other partner here in the US, his wife back home, anyone who could corroborate his finance situation. They also refused to allow him to call or text any of us who love him, so we knew what was going on. "No phones or smart devices in the customs area." He was detained for over 7 hours. One he was out of the detainment area, he was seated in an area with no access to wifi, so he had to purchase internet on the airplane, to let us know what had happened. Between the group of us, we spent over $2000 USD on this trip in the last month, yet our funds were not good enough for US CBP. Every single one of us involved are low income people, who pooled our resources and were able to make this happen. It was my birthday gifts, as well as Christmas for the entire group of us. All now ruined. He traveled 6000 miles over 30 hours via car, train and airplane, to get here. He had a valid Australian passport and US issued visa. He followed all the rules to enter this country lawfully. He had his tickets to go home already paid for, within the parameters of his visa. There was absolutely no reason he should have been detained at all, let alone refused entry at LAX. We plan to take this as high as possible. We'll be contacting many people over the next few days and weeks. This post is public so please feel free to share.