detention of UK journalist coming to the U.S.

This article in The Guardian scared the shit out of me: link

It’s the first hand account of a UK journalist who was flying to Los Angeles to do some interviews for an article she was writing for the British paper The Guardian. Because she did not have a journalist visa (!) she was detained, strip searched, and held for hours in a prison cell before being send back to London.

This article had me alternate between fuming over the civic injustice of what was being done to this member of the press, to being scared out of my wits. This is “the land of the free?” How can we say this with a straight face if we detain people from our strongest ally because they are reporters? Or detain reporters, period? What would we say if Britain did this to our journalists?

I am absolutely speechless.