S'porean woman allegedly detained in LA airport for 2 hours, asked how much was in her bank account

When she landed in Los Angeles, U.S., a Singaporean woman was allegedly detained by the U.S. customs officers and was held for questioning for two hours.

Taking to TikTok, Gladys shared her experience being held by the American customs officer after she was told that her passport "could not be processed" and was escorted to a backroom.

Strange situation

In her video posted on Apr. 24, Gladys said that an officer brought her to the room and told her not to use her phone or any electronic devices.

This meant that she could not contact anyone who may have been waiting for her outside.

She went on to describe it as a "strange situation," noting that the room she was brought into was full of people who "looked like they might speak Spanish as their first language" and that a Spanish-language drama was playing on the television in the room.

During her time in the room, she saw other people who she believed were European brought into the room, along with other Asian people who had "equally powerful passports".

In the room, she could hear all the others being questioned by the American customs officers.

She added that she did not feel that the customs officers were aggressive, and the questions, albeit intrusive, were asked in the "nicest way possible."

Questioning

When she was finally called to be questioned, Gladys was met by an officer with a "really disarming smile," who spoke to her as if they were old friends.

The officer then supposedly asked her:

• What was she doing here in the U.S.?
• Has she lived in the U.S. before?
• When did she meet her husband?
• How long have they been together with her husband, and when did they start dating?

After she answered, the officer apparently commented on her marriage, stating that they got married really young.

He also asked her if they planned to have children.

The officer then asked the most "crucial question": " Are you thinking of moving to the U.S.? Are you thinking of living in the U.S.?"

That was when the alarm bells went off, and she told the officer that she would probably not move to the U.S. as she still had family in Singapore.

However, the officer's next question was "extremely intrusive": "Can you tell me how much is in your bank account right now?"

The officer apparently would not take no for an answer and told her to give him an estimate.

Gladys was only released after she shared that information with the officer.

"He probably realised that I don't have enough money to start a life in the United States... or that I have enough money and I don't need to start a new life in the United States," she mused.

Numerous people in the comments expressed their surprise that such an incident happened, while others shared similar experiences.

In a follow-up video, Gladys clarified that she never meant to come across as "anti-U.S." and her video was meant to record and document her experience being detained.

She emphasised that she was not "trying to propagate any form of animosity or hate towards another country" and she went on to share that her experience in the U.S. has been "nothing short of amazing".

Detained

Her story seems to be one of many, as other tourists from different nationalities have also been stopped at U.S. borders.

In April 2025, Renato Subotic, the head Australian mixed martial arts coach, was detained and arrested when he arrived in America for a seminar.

In an Instagram post, Subotic shared that immigration had pulled him into an isolated room and questioned him for three hours before he was told that there was a mistake with his visa and was arrested.

A 28-year-old tourist from Wales shared that she spent 19 days in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility after she was held by U.S. customs officers over a "visa mix-up", BBC reported.

Becky Burke had planned a four-month backpacking trip across the U.S., Canada and other areas. In February 2025, she travelled to Seattle with plans to travel to Canada.

However, she spent six hours at the border waiting while the officers tried to "determine if what [she] had been doing in America counted as work," BBC stated.

"I then had an interrogation for about an hour in a small room where they were asking me loads of details about what I had been doing in America and at the end of that, they had determined that I had been working in America and violated my ESTA," Burke told the BBC.

In March 2025, CBS News reported that American immigration officials were also detaining Europeans for no apparent reason.

It reported that numerous European tourists said they were stopped at the U.S. borders and held at immigration detention centres for weeks despite holding tourist permits, work visas or otherwise believed to be authorised to travel to the U.S.

Top photos glitzandglads/TikTok