Korean Pop group stopped at U. S. Border, detained under suspicion of being 'sex workers'

I read this last week. That article missed that they did not have entertainment permits or their manager or their publicist with them. Some girls are as young as 16. They came with lots of costumes, makeup etc and had no parents with them. The fault is really on their company for not getting everything set up correctly. My friends work with agencies that rescue trafficked victims. It's a terrible violation, better safe than sorry.
 
If they didn't have entertainment permits, that would have been a huge problem, so I doubt it was just confirming who they were which took that long.
 
I'm actually a bit puzzled by the order of events. They're saying that customs became suspicious which means that they must have passed through immigration. Which means someone must have let them in even though they were having the wrong paperwork? Considering my experiences, I highly doubt that that would have happened. If the girls arrive at immigration and state they're there for something their visas aren't covering then they would most certainly not be allowed entry.

A few years ago, I had a visa which I was sure had expired the year before (I would have sworn that it said that it expired in 2012 when it actually doesn't expire until 2021) so I did the visa waiver and that confused immigration. They sent me to secondary inspection and I wasn't able to collect my bags until after I was granted entry and out of secondary inspection.

So, either the wrong paperwork wasn't that big of an issue and they were let into the country and customs decided to (randomly) search their bags after the girls had collected their luggage and then they were held by customs because of the costumes or it was the wrong paperwork which was an issue and they had to collected their bags so they could be searched and the costumes were discovered as a consequence of that.
 
They're saying that customs became suspicious which means that they must have passed through immigration.
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When I've gone to most other countries, customs/immigration have been seperate- but when I've entered the US, it has been the same person (A "customs and border patrol" agent). Is that just because I'm a citizen, or is that true of the non-citizen lines too? In that case, they wouldn't have passed through another checkpoint first.


This is really unfortunate for them, I do feel sorry that they were detained for so long and had to return to Korea. But I agree with the commenter on the website who points out that the costumes, lack of chaperones of young teenage girls, and possibly improper visas make this a situation that could raise concern. In another scenario, the CBP officer could have saved a group of girl's lives essentially. The sex trade is sadly a very real thing. To me it sounds like whoever booked the trip for them may have dropped the ball, or the girls were unable to do a good job of declaring why they had what they had in the luggage. Really unfortunate situation. I know I wouldn't want to return to a country after that.
 
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Skittl1321 said:
When I've gone to most other countries, customs/immigration have been seperate- but when I've entered the US, it has been the same person (A "customs and border patrol" agent). Is that just because I'm a citizen, or is that true of the non-citizen lines too? In that case, they wouldn't have passed through another checkpoint first.
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If, by same person you mean they share a title then yes, that's the same for tourists as well. Usually, the guys stamping passport and granting entry are, as far as I know, referred to as immigration officer, however, that could be informal and they do have "US customs and border patrol" written on their uniforms. Which is why I find it unclear because customs agent doesn't necessarily have to mean the guys who you hand your customs form to, it could, in theory, also refer to the guys who grant entry.

And I agree. Considering how much was suspicious (teenagers without adults, wrong paperwork, the luggage) I understand why customs would want to make sure. I don't agree with them often but in this case I'm actually on their side. If I were the band, I'd fire the manager or whoever is responsible for arranging those trips. (Would they even have been allowed to work in the US without proper chaperones had they had the correct paperwork?)
 
Did they need performance visas if they were there to do a photo shoot (and probably go sight-seeing)? I don't think they were performing at all. Anyway, from the sounds of the experience, I don't blame the members of the group if they retained an attorney and investigate the matter further. I suspect there were all sorts of things going on as it's not unheard of from TSA agents.
 
They were going to perform at a gala. The issue is - were they going to be paid? I don't think the girls and women had confident answers. I really think their booking company was not thorough. I also think they went back to Korea on their own, that they were eventually cleared but did not want to stay.

(I love kpop, this group is not risque, it's pretty wholesome, I think there has to be more to this story than is let on. Otherwise we would hear about this kind of thing with every kpop, jpop group that comes through). This is my favorite Mad Clown and Jinsil - it is the perfect balance of rap and pop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhl8J-2g_A0
 
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Really, it seems the other articles mentioned they weren't performing. I may have missed that.
 
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