SXSW-bound Italian band denied entry to U.S., jailed and deported | Hacker News Reader

SXSW-bound Italian band denied entry to U.S., jailed and deported

music.blog.austin360.com

11 pointsmgiannopoulos10 comments

We would also like to apologize for having had to cancel our American tour and hope to go back soon.

Sadly, it's unlikely. They're probably banned for five years due to being deported. They could go through the I-212 process but I imagine that's only going to get more difficult with the current administration.

I think it is a shame for America. In a state governed by fair laws, people should not fear arbitrar individual decisions. This fear concerns the non us travelers, but this fear is more and more present for us citizen (for example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE). This fear is the symptom of a broken democracy.

This happens with bands all the time, and has nothing to do with Trump.

If you want to play shows in the US, you need a work visa. Bands will routinely try to claim they are not playing, and the first thing that CBP does is look up their tour dates, see they're lying, and kick them out.

Did you read the article and the band post?

Sure did. CBP found they were playing other shows, and they didn't have a work visa. Am I missing something?

Sure?

> We made our way to passport control with our ESTA, a letter from our American label (in which the label owner declared we would be performing a series of concerts for promotional purposes only and that we would in no way be receiving any form of payment for those shows) and a written invitation on the part of SxSw in hand

It seems that you didn't read

Have you read the article?

"Those two venues, as it happens, were not in Austin nor part of the band’s South by Southwest agenda. In addition to the Seattle KEXP radio promotional performance mentioned in the Facebook statement, Soviet Soviet also had booked three other shows en route to Austin: one in Seattle and two in Southern California.

Archived web pages for those events indeed show that shows in Seattle, at Kremwerk, and in Los Angeles, at Echoplex, carried cover charges of $10 to $13. (A show in Long Beach, Calif., was advertised as a free event.)"

So it looks like at the time of the incident at least there seemed to be some sort of payment collected for shows which was sufficient to deny entry.

I don't understand why the record label didn't arrange them a proper visa for the US.

> So it looks like at the time of the incident at least there seemed to be some sort of payment collected for shows which was sufficient to deny entry.

If that is sufficient, why are bands without work visas allowed in to play at SXSW? SXSW is not a free event.

Shouldn't the key be whether or not the band is paid, rather than whether or not people are paying to get into the event where the band is playing?

I think the reason for this is that the band always claims that they are not paid, but they are almost always lying. So, CBP uses some heuristics, and reasonably concludes that if a band is playing at a bar with an entry fee, they're probably being compensated. I am almost certain that was true in this case.

Because they might have gotten through a CBP officer who's been less anal about it?

That said those bands should also likely have been denied entry without a proper visa.

This isn't a political move, the band didn't had a proper visa and a letter stating "I will not be directly compensated for this" in all honesty isn't sufficient.

This is like that cry blog of some dev being denied entry to the UK and sent back because she didn't had the correct visa, and of course in that case there was a spin again about how horrible UKVI is and about how she was put in the same place as all other illegal immigrants awaiting deportation.

A band performing receives benefits even if these are not direct, if they want to have their asses covered they should've applied for a talent visa like O-1 if league of legends gamers that attend semi-professional tournaments get those with ease they could also gotten it.

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