An Australian travel influencer has claimed she was detained at LAX airport by customs for about five hours because they "thought she was a stripper".
Mikaela Testa, who has 2.2million followers on her @mikaelatesta TikTok account, has shared a video explaining how she was detained with her friend Trinity by US authorities.
The women alleged that the Customs officer held them there as they thought the pair were strippers or escorts.
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In the video, which has gained more than 125,000 likes, she explained: “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'.”
Mikaela said the customs official ‘sent her straight to the detained area’ and has a theory as to why after many of her friends have supposedly spent "days" in that room.
She continued: “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.”
"Luckily we didn’t get sent 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.”
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A spokesperson for US Customers and Border Protection said in a statement: "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 traveller's admissibility based on their looks or physical appearance.
"Travellers must demonstrate they are bona-fine visitors into the Unites States. CBP officers determine a traveller's admissibility based on all factors presented during the inspection process."
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