Members of the punk rock band UK Subs have said they were denied entry and detained in the US, according to accounts from the band themselves.
Bassist Alvin Bibbs shared details of the incident with local UK news website Dorset Eye on Thursday, which comes amid widespread reports of people being denied entry to the US, including a French scientist who said he was barred because of anti-Donald Trump comments he had made.
Bibbs, along with bandmates Marc Carrey and Stefan Häublein, were deported back to the UK following their detainment. Only vocalist Charlie Harper had been allowed entry. Harper ended up playing the band’s scheduled show in Los Angeles with a group of stand-in musicians.
Bibbs recounted how after he landed at the LA airport with his partner, he was told he would be questioned after being flagged. He was informed the flagging was for two reasons: first, he was told he had an incorrect visa, but he was also told that there was another reason that the agents would not disclose to him.
“I can’t help but wonder whether my frequent, and less than flattering, public comments regarding their president and his administration played a role – or perhaps I’m simply succumbing to paranoia,” he said.
The band, considered pioneers in the genre of British punk rock, have been outspokenly critical of Trump and his policies in the past. They are known to often make political statements during live performances.
“What followed was far from pleasant,” Bibbs said. “Two police officers escorted me to another section of LAX, where I found Stefan and Marc already detained in a cold holding pen, along with a group of Colombian, Chinese, and Mexican detainees. My luggage, phone, and passport were confiscated.”
He explained how he was eventually called for a second interview at 4am, hours after he had initially landed at 7pm.
Bibbs says his partner waited 25 hours for him to finally be released from the detention. “By the time we were escorted on to the flight at 8pm the next day, I had gone without sleep for well over a day, surviving only on a pot noodle and a couple of cups of tea.”
Though he expressed relief that Harper had been able to enter the country and perform the scheduled show, Bibbs is not keen on trying to come back to the US again. “It seems my relationship with the country is over for the foreseeable future,” he said.
The experiences of the UK Subs members are the latest in a long line of people who have experienced long hours of detainment and deportation upon entering the US, with the incidents frequently credited to vague or unspecified visa issues.
In a similar situation to UK Subs, a French researcher was denied entry to the US earlier this month after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticisms of the Trump administration.
In response to the news Philippe Baptiste, France’s minister of higher education and research, said: “This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration’s research policy.”
