via Alistair on Bluesky June 14, 2025 at 11:27 AM:

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Hi everyone

I was denied entry, detained, and deported from the USA over the last 48 hours because of my reporting on the Columbia student protests

I arrived back in Melbourne hours ago and had my phone handed back to me upon landing

[QANTAS] held onto the phone for the duration of the flight at the request of the Trump administration

15 hour flight + 12 hour detention + 15 hour flight = one of the harder experiences of my life

I had it easy, one woman had been in that detention room 4 days when I arrived, she’s still there

- They were waiting for me when I got off the plane
- They knew (or it felt like they knew) everything about me
- I had cleaned up my online presence expecting ad hoc digital sweeps; I was not prepared for their sophistication
- Sophistication almost certainly facilitated by Palantir

If you are deleting social media ~48 before your flight to the US, *it is already too late.*

- My phone contents were immediately downloaded, on threat of deportation
- In retrospect I should have denied search and accepted immediate deportation; in general I was too compliant, too trusting, too hopeful

They just came out and said it:

“We both know why you’ve been detained…it’s because of what you wrote about the protests at Columbia”

I'll be writing all this up with more detail shortly. For now I'll just say---I believe what I say and say what I believe. The offending posts are all online. Find out for yourself if my words post a danger to the US and *subscribe to my substack*

kitchencounter.blog

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Kitchen Counter | Alistair Kitchen | Substack

Essays about the world we create. Click to read Kitchen Counter, by Alistair Kitchen, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.

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