English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson flew in to John F. Kennedy airport in New York tonight. He planned to attend the demonstration against the Ground Zero mosque on September 11th, along with fellow members of the EDL and other European sympathizers who have come to the USA for the occasion.

According to EDL members who accompanied Mr. Robinson to New York, he was met by two policemen (or possibly two TSA officers) as soon as he stepped off the plane. They took him into custody and almost immediately put him on a plane back to London.

It’s like when Geert Wilders was sent back to the Netherlands from Heathrow, only a much longer flight. My sympathies go out to Tommy Robinson over the Atlantic right now, sitting through seventeen grueling hours of plane travel at one go.

The ostensible reason why he was deported was that he had filled out his entry form improperly, but it’s obvious that the British authorities had informed their DHS counterparts that he was coming, and advised them to send him back using any available pretext.

One of my EDL contacts says he was shadowed by British police at Heathrow right up until the moment he got on the plane. It’s even possible that plainclothes officers were on board with him during the flight.