According to the BBC, Juhel Miah of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, was in Reykjavik, Iceland, with students and colleagues from Llangatwg Community School on Thursday when the group boarded a flight to New York.
But Miah didn't end up making the trip. Authorities stopped him from taking the flight, even though the Neath Port Talbot council said he had a valid visa and British passport, the BBC reported.
"Everyone was looking at me," Miah told the Guardian. "As I was getting my luggage, the teachers and kids were confused. I couldn't believe this was happening. I was being escorted out. It made me feel like a criminal. I couldn't speak; I was lost for words."
In a letter to the U.S. Embassy in London, the Neath Port Talbot council said Miah tried to visit the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavik "but was denied access to the building." Miah, who was taken to a hotel, returned to the United Kingdom the following day, the Guardian reported.
The U.S. Embassy in London did not respond to the Guardian's request for a comment.
"No satisfactory reason has been provided for refusing entry to the United States," the council said, adding that Miah "feels belittled and upset at what appears to be an unjustified act of discrimination."
U.S. President Donald Trump issued a controversial travel ban in January halting immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries, but federal courts suspended the executive order earlier this month.
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