Say They Were Detained, Interrogated, Harassed For Hours

Immigration agents at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport have some explaining to do, after they allegedly harassed three Finnish musicians who arrived at MSP in September for a tour in Minnesota.

The Minneapolis-St.Paul Star Tribune reports the musicians filed a complaint with the US Embassy in Helsinki, after they endured over two hours of interrogation.

"It was almost three hours of screaming, door-slamming and accusations, according to the report I received," said Marianne Wargelin, honorary Finnish consul for the Dakotas and most of Minnesota. The latter state has the second largest Finnish-American population in the nation.

The artists arrived at MSP September 13, after being invited to perform at a cultural event at the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota. The trio also planned to travel to Ontario, and several small towns in Minnesota and Michigan.

The musicians were waiting for their passports to be checked when the fracas began. Two immigration agents allegedly walked up to Jukka Karjalainen -- described as "the Bruce Springsteen of Finland" -- and began questioning him. Drug-sniffing dogs were brought in to check the artists' bags, before splitting the group up and leading them to separate interrogation rooms.

"They threatened us with severe punishments if we talk to each other," according to the complaint signed by musicians Ninni Poijärvi and Mika Kuokkanen. "Through the walls, I can hear officers yelling, screaming. They ask about the purpose of our trip -- except we are only allowed to give yes-or-no answers. I try to talk about our plans to meet with Finnish-American folk musicians. Nobody listens. They interrupt me constantly and they yell, 'You are a liar!"'

A Finnish Public Television filmmaker accompanying the musicians on the trip says the agents apparently thought the Finns were trying to work without a permit... or were smuggling drugs, a suspicion aided by the fact the group had arrived from Amsterdam.

"I kept trying to tell them why we were here, but they'd just yell, 'Shut up!"' Erkki Maattanen said. "From the beginning, they said I was lying, that these guys were coming here to work. They were shouting at me, and people were going in and out of doors. They tried to put you down mentally, to humiliate you.

"I was ashamed for their behavior," Maattanen added.

Meanwhile, Professor Jukka Savolainen -- sent by the university to pick the group up -- was kept wondering in an airport waiting room. He later mused at the apparent absurdity of immigration agents believing a wealthy recording artist would travel to the US, "in hopes of earning money playing acoustic music in rural Minnesota."

Brett Sturgeon, regional press officer for US Customs and Border Protection, theorized agents may have been uncertain on the validity of the musicians' travel documents, and on whether the musicians would earn money for their performances. That's a no-no.

Now safely back home, two of the three musicians are due to return to the US this year -- and they're worried they'll face more angst. Immigration agents initially stamped their passports "Refused Entry," Savolainen said... before later crossing those stamps out with a pen.

FMI: www.cbp.gov, www.mspairport.com