Woman 'held in prison' on visit to husband in US army

An Australian woman who was deported from the US after visiting her American husband stationed in Hawaii says she was detained in prison overnight alongside murderers before being sent home.

- ISABEL KEANE

Nicolle Saroukos, 25, of Sydney, says she was held in a federal prison overnight after trying to enter the country with her mother so the two could visit her husband, Matt, a US army lieutenant stationed on Oahu, Hawaii News Now reported.

Ms Saroukos, who has visited three times since the couple were married last December, said things quickly turned chaotic after border officials at Daniel K Inouye International airport flagged her for extra screening.

The officer checking passports “went from completely composed to just yelling at the top of his lungs, telling my mother to go stand at the back of the line and to – excuse my language – ‘shut up’,” Ms Saroukos recalled. “So I automatically started crying because that was my first response.”

After Ms Saroukos and her mother were taken to a holding room where their bags and phones were searched, she was bombarded with questions about her former work as a police officer, whether her tattoos were gang-related, and her marriage to an American.

“When I did say that I was married to somebody in the US army, the officers laughed at me. They thought it was quite comical. I don’t know whether they thought I was telling the truth or not,” she said.