Equal Opportunity Expulsion?

French television reporters weren?t the only hacks blocked at LAX from entering the United States to cover the E3 gaming conference, after failing to produce the required but rarely demanded journalist visas. A British tech journalist, who didn?t want his name used, writes in:

It happened to a lot of UK visitors, too. The criteria for search and expulsion in one case appeared to be a question, asked at customs, if the visitor intended to interview someone while they were in this country. [?]

I got a relatively frantic e-mail on Monday the 12th from the editor of one of the magazines I write for ? because his reviews editor got stopped, searched, and deported from LAX within a couple of hours of his landing. I had to run off and cover E3 in his place. Another editor I know came to E3 with a friend, and that friend was deported at customs.

Immigration officials have now confirmed the handcuffing and expulsions, describing the procedures as routine. Meanwhile, public relations employees who told border guards they were here to work at E3 were whisked right through, on the Visa Waiver program that allows 90-day trips for ?business or pleasure,? but not journalism.