A Calgary man is looking for an explanation after he was detained for hours by U.S. Immigration causing him to miss not only his flight to Seattle but the wedding of his niece in his homeland of Pakistan.

On Monday morning, Malik Khan arrived at Calgary International Airport three hours prior to his scheduled Alaskan Airlines flight. Khan was scheduled to fly to Seattle where he would have a two hour layover before boarding an Emirates Airline flight to Dubai. From Dubai, Khan would fly to his final destination of Lahore, Pakistan.

“I was supposed to go to Pakistan (for the first time in) 12 years to attend the wedding of my niece and also I wanted to see my brother and sister who are over there,” said Khan.

After securing his boarding pass, Khan made his way to U.S. Customs and Immigration.

“I went to the U.S. Immigration and they took my thumb impression, my paperwork, my picture, everything,” recalled Khan. “After that, they sent me to a special room for the investigation. I thought it’s going to take me half an hour and they’d clear me because I have never had any problem before.”

Khan, who works as a salesperson, says he has visited the United States many times and did not foresee any potential issues. The Calgarian became concerned after he was briefly interviewed and then left alone for approximately 30 minutes while the immigration official sent the information away for clearance from the U.S.

“After about half an hour, (the immigration official) came back and he had a paper. He got all my information, my mother, my father, my date of birth, my wife’s date of birth and her name.”

The Calgarian was left to stew, without further interrogation, as the time before his flight continued to tick away. Khan says the official attempted to reassure him stating ‘I’m still waiting’, ‘I appreciate your patience’ and getting to the flight would 'not be a problem'. The agent left again.

At 2:00 p.m., Khan received clearance but, at thatt time, it was physically impossible to make it to the gate for his flight.

Khan says he contacted Alaska Airlines but was told they would be unable to arrange to send him to Seattle to make his connecting flight and that he should return home with his luggage. Khan says the airline returned only one of his two checked bags and staff could not account for the whereabouts of the missing suitcase.

A call to Emirates Airlines offered little reassurance that Khan would be able to attend his niece’s wedding or recover any of the approximately $1,350 he spent on flight.

“When I called from there to Emirates Airline they said ‘Okay, you rebook your flight’ and ‘this ticket is non-refundable and you have to pay a $600 penalty’. They were asking about $1800 or $1900 and they can rebook me again from Seattle (for another day).”

Khan, who immigrated to Canada from Pakistan in 1988, says the idea of facing another potential delay with U.S. Immigration had him considering a route involving a stop in Toronto but the cost would be roughly $2,800.

“Absolutely disappointed,” said Khan of his experience. “I was planning this tour for a long time and now, as you can see, I’m sitting at home.”

The Calgarian suggests his encounter with U.S. Immigration is the new reality when it comes to dealing with the Trump-led United States.

“I’ve travelled 10 or 15 times to the U.S., never had any problem,” said Khan. “Most of the time they stopped me for five or 10 minutes and ask all the questions, maybe due to my name, but after that they cleared me.”

“It’s really risky. All my friends were saying don’t go (through the United States) because you’re going to be in trouble. I said 'Well, I’ve went there so many times, I don’t think it’s going to be any problem'.”

Khan says all of his future travel plans will not include stops in the United States in order to avoid potential interruptions.

With files from CTV’s Chris Epp