“Any alien who is coming to the United States solely, principally, or incidentally to engage in prostitution, or has engaged in prostitution within 10 years of the date of application for a visa admission, or adjustment of status is inadmissible.” (My emphasis.) These are the words that stop me being able to enter the US. It is, to my knowledge, the only country that denies you entry not only if you are considering doing sex work while there (which other countries do too), but because of your having done sex work elsewhere, regardless of whether it was legal. I’ve been aware of this immigration policy for a long time; it’s whispered about in the girls’ rooms of brothels, and tips are exchanged between workers on how to possibly get around it.
Over the last few years—since Fosta-Sesta (the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act and Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, both of which I have written about previously in this column) became law in 2018—there have been increasing reports of workers in the sex industry being stopped at the US border. This is partly because this legislation has led to a hyper-focus on the industry, but also because modern technologies have allowed for heightened surveillance and tracking of sex workers. Facial recognition technology and the rise of online work and advertising—you have to hand over your ID or passport details to work on some US-based websites such as OnlyFans or the escort site Eros—have made it easier for immigration officials to identify us.
The definition of “prostitution” is also deliberately vague, though border officials usually take it to mean penetrative penis-in-orifice sex sold by a woman to a male client. It is grounded in misogyny and also often in racism. The first anti-prostitution immigration law was in the Page Act of 1875, which barred the entry of immigrant Asian women to America on the assumption that they were all engaged in prostitution, a typecasting that has continued through to the modern day. In 2015, the K-pop group Oh My Girl were detained at the border because, as young Asian women carrying numerous outfit changes, US border officials branded them as prostitutes.
This loose definition has meant that the policy can be expanded to catch people who aren’t necessarily full-service sex workers, such as OnlyFans workers or people who aren’t in the sex industry at all. Other examples include Australian OnlyFans model Mikaela Testa, who was denied entry in 2023 because of her sexy shots on the website, and an unnamed gay man from Vancouver who was stopped in 2017 after immigration read his Scruff profile in which he stated he was “looking for loads” (read: of cum, common gay parlance, which immigration officers incorrectly interpreted as looking for loads of money). It’s rare for anti-prostitution laws to be used against someone who isn’t a woman, but his case suggests that when they are used against men, it’s often out of homophobia (such as when the offices of Rentboy.com, a networking site for male sex workers and clients, were raided in 2015.)
The US immigration department is not forthcoming about how individual sex workers are tracked, obviously not wanting to give its methods away. Women I know who have been stopped and deported have been unsure why they were flagged. Was it because their faces were visible in a deactivated escort ad? Was it because they were pictured with “known prostitutes” on social media? Certainly, none of them had answered yes when asked “are you coming to the US to engage in prostitution?” when applying for a visa or Esta. Once stopped, though, even just the presence of nude photos on your phone is used to “prove you’re a sex worker” and ban you from entering the United States for 10 years.
For myself, I have abandoned any notion of ever visiting the US. Between writing under my real name, and my face being visible in all my advertising, the chance of being flagged is too great. If I was questioned, I would have no way of denying my job: a quick Google search would expose me. Although this is completely discriminatory and upsetting both personally and in principle, I try not to dwell on it. As an Australian, the majority of the world is open to me without a visa—a privilege of my passport that many other people in the Southern Hemisphere don’t have.
