LOS ANGELES — The alleged detention and deportation of a British reporter who arrived at Los Angeles International Airport earlier this month has drawn criticism from an international reporters' watchdog group.

Reporters Without Borders says freelance reporter Elena Lappin was interrogated, handcuffed and taken to a detention center after she could not produce a press visa. The group alleges 12 other foreign journalists, including six French nationals, were treated similarly by LAX officials last year.

Two other international reporters were allegedly detained and expelled from airports in New York in what the watchdog group says is a crackdown on the international press.

"It's a deliberate restriction of press freedom," said Tala Dowlatshahi, U.S. representative for Reporters Without Borders.

The watchdog group has "been gravely concerned about new Homeland Security restrictions, not only on journalists but on other individuals and communities that have been targeted in a country that prides itself on democratic freedoms," Dowlatshahi said.

Robert Menard, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, has written to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge to complain about Lappin's alleged treatment.

Immigration and border protection officials said foreign journalists were not being targeted for expulsion.

"It's not about the occupation of a passenger that's coming into the United States," said Ana Hinojosa, the director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection at LAX. "We are concerned that every foreigner has the proper visa to enter the country."

Lappin, 49, a naturalized British citizen originally from Russia, said she came to Los Angeles as a freelance writer for The Guardian, a British daily newspaper. Lappin said she didn't know journalists needed a special visa to work in the United States and had previously traveled in the country without one.

Hinojosa said that the requirement dates to 1952, adding that immigration and border protection officials have been more vigilant about enforcing it since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Lappin said she was taken to a processing center in downtown Los Angeles and placed in a small cell until being deported to London the next day.

"I felt subhuman," she told the Los Angeles Times. "I was treated like a criminal, handcuffed, fingerprinted and mug shots were taken. I suddenly had no rights. It was very, very humiliating."