A TikToker said she and a buddy were held for almost five hours before being released by US Customs after being stopped at an airport due of their attractiveness.
Australian social media personality Mikaela Testa, who has 2.2 million TikTok followers (@mikaelatesta), recently posted a video outlining what transpired to her at LAX Airport, stating that security personnel mistakenly thought they were strippers or prostitutes.
Trinity joined her as she continued: “Okay, so we got to the LAX airport. I made sure I looked really, really ratchet and bad because I know that the US Customs are really strict.”
“Trinity, with her beautiful eyelash extensions and big, fat juicy lips, pulls up looking hot to the US Customs and I knew. I knew but I didn’t say anything.”
“The US Customs guy goes, ‘is this your first time in LA?’
“She’s like, ‘yeah’. ‘Do you have a return flight?’ ‘No’.”
In her statement, Mikaela claimed that the customs official “sent her straight to the detained area,” adding: “I know for a fact that he thought she was a prostitute or an escort looking to work in the US because they love detaining Australian girls and accusing them of that until they tell the truth.”
She claimed to have “so many Australian girlfriends” who had “spent days in that held room, being informed that they are escorts and to just “speak the truth,” having known many women who had been returned home.”
“We thought we were going to get sent home. And there were heaps of Australian girls in there at the same time, so maybe it was the fact that we were Australian. I don’t know.”
“This guy was staring at us, like death staring us the whole time and if we look, he’d be like, ‘Look away, look at the TV, don’t look at me, only look at me if you’re being spoken to.”
“They go through your entire camera roll, all of your messages, and they make a decision whether they’re going to send your a**e home or not.”
Mikaela claimed that authorities also seized two other Australian women who knew her and who she alleges ‘were strippers’.
“They were going through their phones and there were just a bunch of explicit photos,” she added.
“And they were just cracking up. So unprofessional. They were literally all laughing, looking at these girls’ phones.”
“I was terrified if they’d have touched my phone. Luckily they did not.
“And you’re not allowed to touch your phone at all. If you get caught touching your phone, you’re basically dead. Good luck, they’ll send you to jail.”
When questioned why she and Trinity were in the room, Mikaela stated they had been there for around five hours and had “meet so many dancers” and “so many females,” to which she had replied, “I don’t know.”
“They finally let us out at the end. We were literally the last people out of the detained room because the guys just wanted to keep us around for longer,” she added.
“I think they wanted to keep us around for longer.”
Along with hundreds of comments from shocked TikTokers, the video has amassed 111,000 likes, over 800,000 views, and hundreds of comments.
Even one person who claimed to have gone through a similar situation wrote: “LAX customs are the worst every time they tell me I’m too young and too pretty to be travelling alone and ask how I paid for these flights by myself.”
In a response to LADbible, a spokeswoman for US Customs and Border Protection said: “Due to privacy law restrictions we can’t comment on individual cases.”
“It is absolutely false and misleading that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will determine a traveler admissibility based on their looks or physical appearance. Travelers must demonstrate they are bona-fine visitors into the Unites States.”
“CBP officers determine a traveler admissibility based of all factors presented during the inspection process.”