The US government has said it was not involved in the decision to detain the partner of a journalist who published information from US whistleblower Edward Snowden.
A White House spokesman said the decision to detain Mr Miranda "was not made at the request or with the involvement of the US government".
But he said British officials did give them a "heads up" about the detention.
David Miranda, 28, was held for nine hours by police at Heathrow on Sunday.
Mr Miranda was detained under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. This allows police to hold someone at an airport for up to nine hours for questioning about whether they have been involved with acts of terrorism.
Scotland Yard have not said on what grounds Mr Miranda was detained.
He said he was kept in a room and questioned about his "whole life".
Senior British politicians and the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, David Anderson QC, have called on police to explain why Mr Miranda was detained.
'Best interests'
Brazil's foreign minister Antonio Patriota said he would call his UK counterpart William Hague to tell him the detention of Mr Miranda - a Brazilian national - was "not justifiable" and ask him to ensure it "won't happen again".
During a press conference at the White House, deputy spokesman Josh Earnest was asked about whether the US had played a part in the decision to detain Mr Miranda.
He said: "This was a law enforcement action take by the British government and this was something that they did independent of our direction.
"As you would expect, the British government is going to make law enforcement decisions that they determine are in the best interests of their country.
"This was something we had an indication was likely to occur, but it is not something that we requested and it was something that was done specifically by the British law enforcement officials there."
BBC correspondent Kim Ghattas, in Washington, said it was likely that the "heads up" about Mr Miranda's detention was passed to US officials when his name was spotted on passenger lists.
The White House declined to comment on whether Mr Miranda's name was on a "watch list" maintained by the US Transportation Security Administration.
It also declined to comment on whether the US was given access to Mr Miranda's laptop or anything on the laptop.
Mr Miranda was held at Heathrow on Sunday on his way from Berlin to Rio de Janeiro, where he lives with his partner, Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald.
"I remained in a room, there were six different agents coming and going, talking to me," Mr Miranda said.
"They asked questions about my whole life, about everything.
"They took my computer, video game, mobile phone, my memory cards, everything."
'Bullying'
In Germany, Mr Miranda had been staying with US film-maker Laura Poitras, who has also been working on the Snowden files with Mr Greenwald and the Guardian, according to the newspaper.
His flights were being paid for by the Guardian. A spokesman said he was not an employee of the newspaper but "often assists" with Mr Greenwald's work.
Under schedule 7, anyone detained must "give the examining officer any information in his possession which the officer requests". Any property seized must be returned after seven days.
Mr Anderson said it was very unusual for someone to be held for the full nine hours, and he wanted to "get to the bottom" of what had happened.
He said he had asked the Home Office and Scotland Yard for a full briefing.
The Guardian said it was "dismayed" by the detention and was "urgently seeking clarification from the British authorities" as to why it had happened.
Mr Greenwald said the British authorities' actions in holding Mr Miranda amounted to "bullying" and linked it to his writing about Mr Snowden's revelations concerning the US National Security Agency (NSA).
He said it was "clearly intended to send a message of intimidation to those of us who have been reporting on the NSA and [UK intelligence agency] GCHQ".
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