Gay adult star banned from US for 10 years after airport interrogation
Milo Miles (Getty Images)
Adult film star Milo Miles has alleged that he was “detained and questioned for eight hours” about his sexuality by US border control in January and banned from the United States for 10 years.
Miles, who is Latino-Canadian, told LGBTQ Nation on 7 April that he was travelling from Toronto to Las Vegas when he was pulled aside at the airport, and his luggage and phone were searched.
“My privacy was violated,” he claimed. “I was subjected to derogatory comments, with an unsettling focus on my sexual orientation and my sex life. All of this happened on two hours of sleep. I was starving, dehydrated, and in a state of complete exhaustion. I was treated like a criminal despite having done nothing wrong. I felt coerced, manipulated, and powerless. I am devastated.”
Miles was on his way to attend the annual GayVN Awards, which honour people in the gay adult entertainment industry. He had six nominations and subsequently won one of them.
‘I was treated like a criminal despite having done nothing wrong’
The star details that he was detained for two hours, and questioned and interrogated “with an unsettling focus on [his] sexual orientation”. He said: “They accused me of escorting with no evidence.”
Miles went on to say that security went through his luggage and questioned him over the amount of medication, which included PrEP, fibre pills and dietary supplements, he was travelling with, despite finding nothing illegal.
“The officer was fixated on why I had so much luggage and medication with me,” Miles said. “I had three pieces of luggage with me because, in addition to the awards show in Vegas, I was then going to meet my boyfriend in Florida for the Atlantis cruise. They were asking why I had so [many] ‘gay clothes’ with me.”
Miles was eventually allowed to fly but missed his flight and had to return the next day. However, Miles was told by a Customs officer that he had a flag on his account, and he was required to do a secondary screening.
“This officer decided to be a lot more thorough with his search and interrogation.” Miles said. “After about two hours of intense interrogation, he found evidence that I do p*** on my personal phone. Then, over the next two hours, they found evidence of escorting on my other [professional] phone.”
The evidence they found was text conversations Miles had had with past clients, confirming he was an escort, as well as messages with potential clients in Las Vegas, although no solid plans had been made.
The first lot of messages caused him to be banned from the United States for 10 years.
However, Miles insisted that there is a difference between his work as an escort and prostitution. “Escorting is an exchange of money for time spent with an individual,” he said. “For example, most of my clients are looking for ‘the boyfriend’ experience. Or someone to go to dinner with. Prostitution is an exchange of money for sexual services. There was never any evidence of prostitution on my phone, only escorting.”
According to QNews, sex worker advocates often warn that US Customs can deny people entry if they are believed to have engaged in sex work, even if they have no prior convictions or plans to work on their trip.
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