I can't believe what we have become.

As part of America's "new normal," we have had a collective xenophobia thrust on us.  Anyone who is different from us can be thrown out or not admitted in for the slightest reason.  Heaven forbid we remember we are the HUMAN race first, not the AMERICAN race.  And, lest we forget, we are a nation founded by immigrants searching for new opportunities to live freely from oppression.

Do not start going off again on the stupid M&M theory.  I am not suggesting we let absolutely anyone into the country without question; of course we need to protect ourselves, but that doesn't mean we must become so harsh that we incarcerate or deport someone for life because they sneezed during their entry interviews.  If someone comes through Border Patrol with all the proper documentation and a corroborating story, why all the fuss?  Because 45's immigration mandates are so vague and they give far too much interpretive power to individual agents, we have now reached the point where an indie band was disallowed entry into the country.

Italian band Soviet Soviet (who I admittedly had not heard of before this incident, but I listened to a couple tracks and they are up my alley) flew into Seattle to perform at a couple of promotional venues along the west coast before traveling to Austin, TX for the annual South By Southwest (that's SXSW for those hip enough to know) exhibition festival.  At none of these events was the band being paid - strictly promotional performances - and they flew in with all of the appropriate documentation they were told they needed.  They have a label who represents them here.  None of their materials or contacts made any difference.  They were interrogated separately, then, after it was determined they were not to be allowed entry, they were handcuffed and taken to jail for the night, apparently while awaiting travel arrangements to return them to Italy.

THEY ARE A FREAKING ROCK BAND!!!  They are just trying to make a living doing what they love.  Like so many other bands around the world, they were coming to SXSW to promote themselves.  If you don't know, SXSW is a very big deal for hundreds of bands, and now comedians and filmmakers, to help them get attention for their work.  This band has now been denied potential exposure from one of the bigger international stages because of an arbitrary decision made by some Border Patrol agents who claimed the band still did not have the proper documentations.  The excuse was that since a couple of the venues at which they were to have performed were charging a cover, that was reason to make the agents believe the band was going to be paid and therefore made it necessary for them to have work visas rather than ESTAs, which is a Visa Waiver Program.  I'm sorry, you're going to have to do better than that, CBP.

So the dangers of Trump's America shine again, this time on such an innocuous situation.  As if the so-called "travel ban" isn't ridiculous enough, now we have any Tom, Dick, or Harry with a badge and a clipboard deciding who is clean enough to step on our sacred and hallowed ground that we appropriated from the real natives in the first place.  I guess they've proven one thing by this: they aren't racial profiling against Muslims; we're afraid of everyone.  I am so disgusted and ashamed.

The only good thing that should come out of this is Soviet Soviet gets a lot more attention, and I hope they do become big stars and then find a way to throw it back in 45's face.

And so you don't think I'm just going off half-cocked about this, here is an article reporting the incident; a link to radio station KEXP in Seattle (which was one of the promo events the band was to play) detailing their understanding of the it; Soviet Soviet's Facebook page; and one of their videos. Peace, love, and rock and roll; may clearer heads prevail.