For someone who believes that “no one is illegal on stolen land,” it’s a surprise that Billie Eilish’s legal team appears to have blocked my entry to the US.
My plan was to test her theory of land ownership, which she stated at the Grammys to great applause, and take over her LA mansion with the help of Native Americans.
But, sadly, I was turned back at the border last weekend – my sacred and inalienable right to freedom of movement curtailed by border guards who were, I suspect, briefed about my arrival by Eilish’s team.
I’m an Australian political activist, more usually focused on exposing the influence of the Chinese government in Australia. But I made an exception after Eilish made her ludicrous statement at the Grammys. I joked on Twitter that I intended to fly to Los Angeles to take up residence at her home as an illegal migrant. The post went super-viral with more than 1.1 million likes across Instagram, X and TikTok – so I decided to actually go through with the joke.
I started a fundraiser to cover my flights and accommodation (on the off-chance that Eilish decided not to let me move into her mansion).
Now, obviously I did not intend to do anything illegal. My plan was to call a press conference complete with a professional Native American smoke ceremony on the road outside her mansion. To that end I was in advanced discussions with multiple different professional Native American dance groups who wanted to help.
I didn’t expect to encounter any actual problems at the border. Vice President J.D. Vance retweeted me just a few months ago, so I assumed I was still in the good books of American authorities.
My problems began in the passport line. I was taken aside to a screening room and made to wait without access to my phone for four hours. Then I was brought to a holding area, a liminal zone that they referred to as the “Upstairs’’ unit. An armed guard sat behind plexiglass next to a set of cribs, airport chairs and a television playing Friends re-runs on mute.
After about six hours I was finally allowed to contact the Australian emergency consular line. The Australian Consulate patched me through to my dad at some ungodly time back in Brisbane. I implored him to try to get the word out on Twitter that I had been detained, but he only had 20 followers on an anonymous account. “You have to try DM my mutuals!’’
The guard overheard me and told me that I would be in trouble for that. I wasn’t supposed to talk to anybody other than the Australian Consulate.
Eventually I pulled my hoodie over my eyes and fell asleep in an airport chair.
I was called in for an interrogation at about 4 a.m. by Officer Martinez. He was honestly nice to me. He took me to one of the interrogation rooms and allowed me to sneak a text message to my family on my phone.
Officer Martinez started his interrogation by asking me who Billie Eilish was.
I was really confused. She’s a really famous singer, I said. I tried to sing the famous line from “Bad Guy’’ and Officer Martinez laughed.
According to open-source information, he said, you intend to trespass on her property.
I told him that it was an elaborate social media shitpost or joke.
He asked me if I intended on trying to make contact with Billie Eilish, whether I intended on meeting her.
I honestly could not think of anything worse, I said.
I obviously never intended to go anywhere near her. I pointed out that a British reporter for GB News had knocked on her door as part of a report and nothing happened to him.
The strangest part was that he then started questioning me about my past activism against the Chinese Communist party. He wanted to know if I had ever attempted to blow up a Chinese government building. Whether I had previously attempted to assassinate Chinese government officials.
I was shocked. I traveled to the US in January 2026 on an ESTA with zero issues. Walked right off the plane with zero problems. I even spoke to US State Department officials around this time about free-speech issues in Australia. Somehow three weeks later US customs officials were interrogating me about whether I had tried to blow up Chinese government facilities.
This insane allegation goes back to July 2022 when I was framed by the Chinese Embassy in London for sending them a fake bomb threat. I am a thorn in their side and they were angry that I was staging a peaceful protest carrying a Uighur flag outside the embassy. The fake email said: “this is Drew Pavlou, you have until 12pm to stop the Uyghur genocide or I blow up the embassy with a bomb. Regards, Drew.” I was arrested by London’s Metropolitan Police as a terror suspect before being completely cleared by British authorities.
This incident formed just one part of a broader overall state harassment campaign – the head of the Australian Federal Police ultimately testified to the Australian Senate that the AFP carried out police raids in Australia to disrupt a pro-CCP foreign interference plot to find my address and violently harm me.
I was extremely worried at this point. I had been meeting with US State Department officials just a week prior to this interrogation. Now I was suddenly under suspicion of terrorism. I could only surmise that somebody had prepared an information pack on my activist history and sent it to DHS solely to get me blocked at the border. Perhaps that somebody could have been linked to Billie Eilish’s legal team.
I went back to sleep and was woken up at about 6 a.m. They took me to get my fingerprints taken. It was at this point I knew that I wasn’t being let in.
Officer Martinez informed me that I would be denied entry mainly due to my posts about Eilish. They also didn’t like the fact that I planned to do a podcast while in the US.
I wouldn’t be banned from the United States but I would not be allowed to use an ESTA visa waiver again. From then on I would have to go to the US Embassy in Canberra and submit to an interview to obtain a different visa category. The process could take up to a year.
At this point I had already been detained for nearly 15 hours so I just begged them to send me home on the earliest possible flight. They told me that would be 9 p.m. so I would have to wait almost another 15 hours.
Eventually two armed guards with guns escorted me onto my return flight at around 8:30 p.m. I think they wanted to shame me in front of the other passengers. But I honestly felt cool.
Eventually I got home to Brisbane after another 20 hours of travel. By that point I had been in transit for more than 65 hours straight.
Was it worth it overall? It’s a good question. Ultimately I think it was. I truly wouldn’t change anything.
It was beautiful performance art – I managed to help Billie Eilish and her legal team embrace border control and deportations. Through sheer force of willpower, I made thousands of open-border enthusiasts come around to backing deportations the second they found out I was the one being sent back. These same people who would fight to the death to prevent the deportation of a cartel member or a child killer suddenly bayed for blood when learning that a right winger was being deported.
I stand ready to assist US border authorities in any further capacity. If Stephen Miller and Donald Trump need me to just fly into LAX every couple weeks to get deported, solely to build leftist support for harsher border controls, I will do it.
And I remain willing to move into Billie Eilish’s mansion should her legal team ultimately decide to transfer her stolen land to my possession. I will be waiting in Australia for the call.
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