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Was I Deported From The Us?

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I know the title sounds dumb but bear with me.

Location: Texas

Last year I was detained by an immigration officer at IAH and sent to the airport holding cell for two days. I had spent the past year flying back and forth from the US and my home country to help take care of a relative. I was always given a 6-month period of stay upon arriving and never stayed more than a couple months at a time. I always checked the CBP app to make sure the date on my passport stamp was correct. I genuinely have never thought of living in the US, specially with how things are right now.

The last time I went there was during a layover after coming back from a trip to Europe, I landed in Houston and planned on taking a flight home the next day. I told all of this to the immigration officer, he just looked at me weird and asked me to follow him to the holding cell. They took my cell phone and kept me there for two days. After reading out all my previous entries and exits to me the officer admitted that I had never illegally overstayed my tourist visa, but that “it looks like I have the intention of moving to the US permanently”. He then said I was being deported and banned from returning for the next 5 years. I’m autistic and this was a very traumatic experience for me, so I pretty much just nodded along to everything they said and never argued back.

I’m finally reading the document they gave me before sending me home.

It’s titled “Notice to alien ordered removed/departure verification”. It also says “You have been found to be inadmissible to the United States under the provisions of section 212(a), or are ineligible to be admitted as a stowaway under 235(a)(2)… or are deportable under the provisions of section 237 of the Act as a Visa Waiver Program violator… you are prohibited from entering, attempting to enter, or being in the United States:

For a period of 5 years from the date of your departure from the United States as a consequence of having been found inadmissible as an arriving alien in proceedings under section 235(b)(1) or 240 of the Act.”

Does this mean I was deported? Or was I just denied entry, given that I never went past the immigration booth?

submitted by /u/Unlucky_Square759
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