A gay Canadian adult film star claims that he was detained for over eight hours by U.S. Customs before receiving a 10-year ban from the country.
Milo Miles said he was traveling to Las Vegas from Toronto's Pearson Airport in January when a routine U.S. customs screening turned into a nightmare.
"It was the worst and most painful day of my life," Miles told LGBTQ Nation. "I was subjected to derogatory comments, with an unsettling focus on my sexual orientation and my sex life."
Miles said his phone and luggage were searched, and he was asked intrusive questions about his sexuality and line of work.
“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.”
U.S. Customs has the right to deny entry to people they believe are sex workers, even if they’ve never been convicted, and will use coercive tactics to try and elicit a confession, according to Maggies, a Canadian sex worker justice organization. [...]
According to Miles, who was planning on visiting his boyfriend in Florida after the award show, U.S. Customs accused him of "escorting with no evidence" and were fixated on the "gay clothes," fiber pills, and PrEP he had packed, despite finding nothing illegal in his possessions.
Miles ended up missing his flight due to the lengthy interrogation. When he came back the next day to catch another flight, he was interrogated again, and this time they found evidence of his career in the porn industry.
"This officer decided to be a lot more thorough with his search and interrogation," he said. "After about two hours of intense interrogation, he found evidence that I do porn on my personal phone. Then, over the next two hours found evidence of escorting on my other phone."
Miles said that they never found any evidence of prostitution, but noticed text conversations he had with past escorting clients — who he mostly provides with a boyfriend experience — and current text messages where he was trying to make plans with a client in Las Vegas.
"Escorting is an exchange of money for time spent with an individual," he clarified. "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."
Getting banned from the U.S. isn’t just bad for his career — he shoots a significant portion of his adult film project in the country — but has also damaged his personal life.
"I was planning on building a life in the United States with my [future] husband, with my partner, who's American," Miles said.
When asked by LGBTQ Nation what advice he would give other queer travelers, he said, "Avoid the United States at all costs. It’s not worth it. It’s not worth it to put your life at risk."
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