Suck it up, the rules are being enforced.
Via The Guardian:
Australian author and TV personality Yassmin Abdel-Magied has been deported from the US because she didn’t hold the right visa, US authorities have said, but noted she was welcome to apply to return to the country.
Abdel-Magied was due to speak at the PEN World Voices festival in New York, but she was denied entry to the country at Minneapolis airport. She was put on a plane bound for Amsterdam.
A spokesperson from the US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) said Abdel-Magied was – as all international travellers are – assessed for entry into the country.
“During the inspection, CBP officers determined this individual did not possess the appropriate visa to receive monetary compensation for the speaking engagements she had planned during her visit to the United States.”
“As such, she was deemed inadmissible to enter the United States for her visit, but was allowed to withdraw her application for admission. The traveler is eligible to reapply for a visa for future visits.”
Abdel-Magied live-tweeted her brief stay on US soil.
She was advertising on twitter her appearance at the NY festival, speaking on a panel titled “The M Word: No country for young Muslim women”.
But her first tweet offered the caveat: “If they will let me in. I’m currently at the border and they’ve said I’m being deported. This should be fun. What are my rights?”[…]
A spokeswoman for the department of foreign affairs and trade said it was aware an Australian citizen had been refused entry to the US.
“Like Australia, the United States administers a strict entry regime. The decision on who can enter the United States is a matter solely for the US Government.”
Australia’s citizenship and multicultural affairs minister, Alan Tudge, said similarly, US visas were a decision for the American government.
“I just don’t know the details underpinning this and whether or not it was that she had a tourist visa, that perhaps there was evidence she was planning to do other things other than being a tourist there.”