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"I'm not going to tell you where I am going,"

July 15, 2018 by Devin Jones

"I'm not going to tell you where I am going," Elsharkawi told the officer, according to the suit. "I'm going out of my way for you. I want to talk to you about this."

According to the suit, Elsharkawi "engaged in a dispute with the official who was on duty at the airport."

Elsharkawi then "took a phone call from a Mexican Customs official who asked him about his passport," the suit said. "The Mexican Customs official refused to allow the detained man to go to the U.S. and requested that he be allowed a translator. The American Customs official refused, and Elsharkawi was forced to hand over his passport and visa to Mexico, the suit said."

The suit is based on interviews with Elsharkawi, an American citizen who is seeking unspecified damages in the case, and a Mexican Customs agent who spoke to Elsharkawi while he was on a flight from the U.S. to Los Angeles from Mexico.

On February 14, 2017, the suit alleges, Elsharkawi allegedly asked him if he planned to go to the U.S., and, as he told the officer, he "knew that he was going to be detained."

In a statement issued by Elsharkawi's attorney, Stephen Ollister, Elsharkawi's lawyer argued that the Mexican agent's assertion "is inconsistent with the facts and law in this case."

"There is no reason to believe that this incident was any different from what happened at the Mexican customs terminal," Ollister said, adding that "the facts here have nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not the person [Elsharkawi] was on the plane."

According to the suit, Elsharkawi's alleged legal problems began with the agent's question regarding the security of the U.S. and the fact that he had been in the U.S. with Mexican customs officers when they came into contact with him.

"When I got off the plane, I was on my way to the U.S. from Mexico at the customs terminal. I had no idea that I was going to be detained," Elsharkawi's lawsuit states.

He was not detained when he had arrived in the U.S.

"To the extent that Elsharkawi was arrested at the customs terminal, there was no reason for him to be detained at that point," Ollister explained. "I