[ad_1]
The cat sitter was recently asked by authorities to have an abortion after entering the United States after an Australian airport mistake initially targeted her back.
Madoline Gourley was arrested on June 30th while passing through Los Angeles on her way to Canada, where she planned to adopt people’s cats in exchange for a free shelter.
Last week, she said US immigration officials questioned her about whether she was pregnant or had recently had an abortion before she was detained and eventually returned to Australia.
Shortly after the Supreme Court of the United States was overturned, the conflict made international news Roe v. WadeIt gives states the right to make abortion illegal.
Gourley, who is accused of breaching the terms of the visa waiver program, revealed she had problems at Brisbane airport this week that led to her failure in the US.
“I had to go to the counter when she checked out because the machine wouldn’t process my voucher or let me in, so I had to see someone about it,” she told news.com.au.
“The woman printed my Brisbane to Los Angeles ticket and then called someone to say boarding passes for American Airlines are not printed.
“It seems to be a known issue. It didn’t seem like a different situation to me.
Her staff decided that Gourley’s lack of boarding passes for all three flights would not be a problem and let her go with only her baggage claim.
Had she made all three passes, Gourley believes she would not have been deported from the United States just hours after her arrival.
The immigration officer who arrested her was not interested in looking at her baggage claim, and seemed to believe it was no good the moment he discovered that she did not have a boarding pass for her connection in Philadelphia and Montreal via Queensland. The locals have spoken.
He was suspicious of how recently she had entered the country, even though she had no legal or visa restrictions.
“I did all the right things, but he had nothing,” she said.
Since her return to Australia, where the botched abortion scandal made national headlines, Gourley has been approached at Los Angeles airport by US Border Patrol agents tasked with investigating how she was treated.
The conversation turned long enough that the officer apparently “shifted the blame” to Gourley for not showing her concern at the time.
“They asked me why I didn’t raise the inappropriate question with supervisors and ask a manager to intervene,” she recalls.
“If you’ve just been pulled over by the police – you don’t ask to see the police manager.
I had a feeling they hadn’t heard anything else I had to say about my travel plans, so I thought they weren’t likely to hear me either.
Despite the challenge, Gourley still wants to return overseas but has been unable to get help from official agencies.
“I have tried to contact the Australian consulate, the US embassy and DFAT (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade) and nobody seems to want to help me,” she said.
The site, which has been used for more than five years for cat sitting in all parts of the world, is also loved by loyal Housesitters.
When she asked the website if they could help her, she was told that it was immigration officials who decided who could go where.
“So there doesn’t seem to be anything travelers can use to verify what the website is doing. It’s something you have to do at your own risk,” she says.
Gourley’s only option to overturn her US entry ban is to file a Freedom of Information request.
“There was only one accident after the next.”
[ad_2]
Source link
