HW: in Kiwiland

[Eric Siegerman]

On Thu, Jan 27, 2000 at 07:42:49PM -0000, IAN ABRAHAMS wrote:
> > Some of [HW's] members were not allowed to leave their hotel rooms
> > after drug charges that go back as far as 1969; seems like 30+ years on,
> > not much has changed within American law.
> >
> > Ugh.  Doesn't look promising for that L.A. show on March 10-11, does it?
>
> Why this is a problem now when so many US tours have happened in the 1990s?

"Zero tolerance".  There are periodic news reports about people
being turned back at the Canadian/U.S. border -- and sometimes
barred from the U.S. for life -- on no good evidence at all.
(These date from well before the recent terrorist scares, btw).
In one case, a customs agent found a tiny speck of what he
claimed was contraband lodged in the seam of some guy's baseball
cap.  Worse, in order to steamline the process, there's no
appeal.  Once a border guard deems you undesirable, it seems,
you're beat.  (Or so I recall, anyway.  There was a rash of
stories about this in the press a year or so ago, including the
baseball-cap one; my memory may be fuzzy.)

There was recently (ie. this month) a Canadian aid worker cooling
his heels in a Texas jail.  He was driving up from Guatemala,
with, as I recall, all papers in order.  When he tried to cross
into the U.S. from Mexico, a computer search turned up a minor
possession conviction from 1978 or so.  Because he hadn't
volunteered this information to the border guard, he was deemed
to be attempting to enter the U.S. under false pretenses.

This isn't a new thing, either; it's been a problem all along.
At least one North American HW tour was cancelled due to U.S.
visa problems (in '93 or '94, wasn't it?).  And don't forget that
Dave and Ron spent the SD98 Hawkwind(?) concert in Niagara Falls,
Ontario, having been denied entry into the U.S.

--

|  | /\
|-_|/  >   Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont.        erics at telepres.com
|  |  /
Microsoft Lego would have square pips.