Milo Miles had planned to fly from Toronto to Vegas. Instead, he was detained by U.S. Customs for over eight hours, and then was banned from the country for 10 years.

“It was the worst and most painful day of my life,” the Toronto-based adult film model told LGBTQ Nation, phoning from Puerto Vallarta. “I’ve been banned from entering the United States for 10 years while trying to fly to Las Vegas. I was detained and questioned by U.S. customs for eight hours.”

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“My luggage and phone were searched. My privacy was violated. 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.”

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On January 20, Miles was scheduled to attend the annual GayVN Awards, a prominent ceremony honoring the creme de la creme of the gay adult entertainment industry. 

“I was scheduled to present, had six nominations, and ultimately won one,” Miles noted ruefully. 

In all his previous flights to the U.S., the process was relatively hassle-free. Miles is a Canadian citizen with no criminal record and is part of the NEXUS program, which expedites entry into the U.S. and Canada. He’s never had an issue crossing the border, so when U.S. Customs at Toronto’s Pearson Airport brought him to a secondary screening, Miles knew something was off.

“They detained me for two hours,” Miles described the nightmarish situation into which he was thrust, “questioned me, and interrogated me with an unsettling focus on my sexual orientation. They accused me of escorting with no evidence.”

Despite finding nothing illegal on Miles’ person or in his possessions, instead of releasing him, they dug in further, scrutinizing the contents of his luggage.

“They were trying to figure out why I had so much medication because they didn’t know what PrEP was,” Miles recounted. “They didn’t know what fiber pills we were, dietary supplements. They were, like, asking if I was sick. The officer was fixated on why I had so much luggage and medication with me. 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.” 

Ultimately finding nothing, they released Miles, but he had missed his flight and had to reschedule another for the following day.

“The officer implied that the same thing was gonna happen to me the next morning,” Miles said. “I arrived at Customs three and a half hours before my flight. I skipped breakfast and got two hours of sleep.”

“This time, the first Customs officer I spoke to told me that there was a flag on my account and that they had to bring me to secondary screening. He gave my passport to a different officer in the back, and this time I was back there for another six hours.”

“This officer decided to be a lot more thorough with his search and interrogation. 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 keeps a second phone specifically for professional calls and texts.

“While searching my second phone, which was dead, they charged it up and found text conversations I had with past clients. They banned me based on previous text message conversations with clients, confirming that I had met up with clients in the past.” 

Miles added, “I was having text message conversations with potential clients in Vegas, but no solid plans had been made to meet with any clients in Vegas.”  

He made a point to differentiate between the escort work he provides and prostitution.

“Escorting is an exchange of money for time spent with an individual. 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.” 

Miles was subjected to six hours of intense interrogation without any food, which, according to Maggie’s Toronto, a Canadian sex worker-justice organization, is a standard practice U.S. Customs uses to coerce confessions. 

“Questioning is meant to make you feel uncomfortable, so that you answer questions quickly,” Maggie’s Toronto website explains. “You’ll be made to feel like if you just answer all their questions you’ll be allowed into the country. This is not true. [Border agents are] looking to gather more information about you and about your coworkers.”

In Miles’ case, this strategy was effective.

“I only had access to a bathroom and water fountain. They were very aggressive and patronizing with their interrogation. The officer manipulated and pressured me into confessing to their definition of prostitution and engaging in unauthorized employment.”

Coercing this specific confession out of Miles is consequential. According to U.S. travel law, any individual coming to the U.S. to engage in prostitution or who has done so in the past 10 years is prohibited from entry. Travelers found inadmissible due to sex work can be banned from entry for up to ten years, as is the case with Myles.

Although Customs never gave Miles an explicit reason for flagging him in the first place, he has several theories.

“Could it just have been like a red flag related to increased travel to the U.S. because my partner lives there?” Miles pondered. “Because of an increase in funding to Homeland Security, a new facial recognition software was introduced? They saw that I do content using that software?”

This wouldn’t be the first time facial recognition technology (FRT) was used to detain sex workers entering the U.S. An article by Olivia Snow published by The Daily Beast in 2023 chronicles the horror stories of how multiple queer sex workers were denied entry or banned from the country after they were flagged by FRT.

One involved a Canadian sex worker, referred to as “Sydney,” shortly after Boston Logan Airport installed self-service kiosks with FRT at Customs in 2012. 

“When Sydney scanned her passport and looked into her reflection on the kiosk screen, time stopped as a big X appeared over her face,” Snow wrote. “She wasn’t going to make it to the beach after all. An armed officer took Sydney and her wife to secondary questioning and immediately asked for their phones. (While both of Sydney’s were home, the officer made Sydney’s wife unlock hers.) After her wife was dismissed to continue on to the U.S., the officer took Sydney into a separate, freezing room for interrogation. A pair of latex gloves lay on the desk.”

There is also precedent that he could have been reported by a rival adult entertainer. Last June, MAGA-aligned porn star Devin Franco bragged on Twitter that he submitted a tip to ICE on one of his colleagues. 

“As a Latino-Canadian, this experience has shaken me deeply,” said Miles. “I was punished for doing what I love, for showing up as myself, and for existing openly in my work and identity. Had it not been for the clearance in Toronto, I probably would have been held at an ICE detention facility in the US, or even possibly ended up in El Salvador. ” 

Getting barred from the U.S. is not only a huge blow to Miles’ career, where a significant amount of his adult entertainment projects are shot, but also to his personal life.

“I was planning on building a life in the United States with my [future] husband, with my partner, who’s American.”

When asked what advice he would give to other queer travelers, his response was grim.

“Avoid the United States at all costs,” Miles warned. “It’s not worth it. It’s not worth it to put your life at risk.”

LGBTQ Nation reached out to Customs and Border Patrol for comment and will update this article if they respond.

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