A Kenyan
girl was denied entry into the United States just days after courts barred
President Donald Trump from deporting immigrants.
The girl
identified as Ednah Chepkoton, was held at Chicago's O'Hare International
Airport for many hours after getting off a United Airlines flight on Saturday,
February 4, 2017
The
25-year-old nursing graduate had been given a five-year multiple entry visa by
the US embassy in Nairobi on Friday, January 20, 2017
Narrating
to the sad experience to the Star, she said:
'We
landed at around 9.30 am but when I was clearing with the customs an
immigration officer called me aside and started questioning me. I was so
confused and terrified. It was my first trip out of Kenya, she said.
The
officer then started checking her luggage and documents. He asked her why she
was carrying her academic papers and if she did not plan to return to Kenya.
'I told
him I always travel with my papers and that I had a return ticket," she
said.
After the
interrogations which took four hours, the officer demanded her cell phone
'He asked
for the password which I gave to him,' she said, adding she was then asked to
leave the office.
'I went
back to ask why my case was taking long because my flight was leaving. It was
at that juncture that the officer, who was with a woman in uniform, told me he
had two questions for me,'
She was
asked to choose between being banned from the US for five years and having her
visa withdrawn.
Ednah
requested the officers to let her call her cousin. They refused.
Caught
between a hard rock and a hard place, she chose the cancellation of her
multiple entry visa. Her visa now bears a United States Homeland Security stamp
withdrawing it.
Ednah was
bundled into a return flight to Nairobi at around 6pm, more than eight hours
after setting foot in the US.
'I was
really looking forward to my one-month stay in the US. We had spent a lot of
money on air tickets. It is so sad that after all the vetting at the embassy in
Nairobi I was humiliated this much.
Upon
returning to Kenya, she, however, called the US embassy and was told to send
her denial of entry letter.
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