Newlyweds en route to Hawaii honeymoon detained at LA airport ‘because groom is Muslim’

A British newlywed’s plans of a dream honeymoon in Hawaii turned into a nightmare when they were detained at Los Angeles airport for 26 hours then sent home without explanation.

The couple, Natasha Politakis, 29, and husband Ali Gul, 32, were on their way to Hawaii after saving up £7,000 for a romantic getaway. But instead, they were thrown into a detention centre at Los Angeles airport, handcuffed, and flown back to London without explanation.

Against a backdrop of Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, especially on Muslims from half-a-dozen Muslim-majority countries, the couple suspect it was because of Gul’s Muslim and Turkish heritage.

“I am in utter shock that this has happened. We had just got married, we were on our way to our honeymoon as excited as anything and never expected that we would be deported,” Politakis told British media.

“We were treated like criminals and we had all the relevant documentation and answered all their questions. It's not okay to treat people like that.

“As far as we knew before we left everything was fine, but as soon as we got there they wouldn’t let us in.

“We believe since Trump was elected, they took one look at his name, thought he was Muslim and didn’t let him in,” she was quoted as saying.

Gul, an estate agent, holds a British passport and said he had never had any problems going abroad before, despite being born in Turkey.

A US embassy spokesman said in a statement that the United States welcomes more than a million passengers arriving every day.

“The religion, faith, or spiritual beliefs of an international traveller are not determining factors about his/her admissibility into the US,” the statement said.

“Under US immigration law applicants for admission bear the burden of proof to establish that they are clearly eligible to enter the United States. In order to demonstrate that they are admissible, the applicant must overcome ALL grounds of inadmissibility.

“Specific grounds of inadmissibility can be found in INA § 212(a) and list more than 60 grounds of inadmissibility divided into several major categories, including health-related, prior criminal convictions, security reasons, public charge, labour certification, illegal entrants and immigration violations, documentation requirements, and miscellaneous grounds,” the statement added.