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Taylor Horn honks "racism" after Liverpool deportation
Taylor Horn - the latest in a very, very, very long line of lightly talented, fairly attractive women given the "next Britney Spears" label - has been thrown out of the UK after turning up at John Lennon Airport to do a promotional tour of the UK without the proper paperwork.
Apparently, it's racism run rampant:
Before preparing to leave Britain the Americans accused the government agency of “underhand” tactics and vowed to take legal action.
Their lawyer has lodged an appeal based on “race grounds”, claiming anti-American bias is behind their deportation.
Hang about a minute. If your paperwork was in order, and you were refused entry, you could appeal on the grounds that the decision was incorrect. Why would the whole "being American" thing be an issue?
This sounds a little more like someone turning up without the papers, and trying to find an excuse to be let in. That's quite high-maintenance. Maybe she is the new Britney Spears after all.
21 comments:
Until you completely know what you are speaking of, just don't comment at all. They Did have all their documentation. Unfortunately for them they had to deal with idiot immigration officials who do not even know their OWN laws!
If they hadn't wanted people to comment on their case, maybe they shouldn't have run to the papers with their tiresome and unlikely racism allegations.
The thing is that the rules governing what you can and can't do on a visitor visa are pretty poorly drafted - from the Echo report, it looks like Horn didn't have a piece of paper from her label 'sponsoring' the trip, and so it was up to immigration officials to decide from the evidence they had in front of them if Horn was planning to do paid work, performances, or simply the allowed unpaid "personal appearances".
They decided against her.
Before you call immigration officials "idiots" who "do not even know their own laws", you might want to reflect that admission to the United Kingdom is at their discretion; even if you have ALL your paperwork, they can still turn you away.
As a gig promoter I know this subject very well. Yes, I have had Americans refused entry because of errors in their paperwork (or no paperwork completed at all) but the same rules have been applied to Australians and to Russians. In fact, my experience of UK Immigration officials is that anyone who comes from outside the EU must have the correct work permits (or what they now call "sponsorship") no matter which country they come from. False accusations of racism like this are an insult to all those people who have really suffered from racial discrimination.
Taylor had ALL the CORRECT documentation, she is a non-visa national. Actually it's beginning to look as if immigration is figuring out they did make a mistake and allowed her to stay afterall. See www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk
Immigration needs to focus on catching terrorists instead of picking on disabled grandma's and 16 yr old girls!
Ok people refer to the new article in the daily post it explains alot!! And as for the people who want to make comments about them make sure you have your facts straigt before you sling mud at a teenager and a grandmother! Sounds like the people who make bad comments should take a hard long look at themselves!!! I have looked her up and she did have all proper documents! sounds like immigration made a terrible mistake and should never make ANTI-AMERICAN remarks at anyone! If anything taylor and her grandmother poured there own money into the economy! And was just targeted for someone being jelous!get a life people she is innocent of these alligations!!! have a great day! And all the people in KENTWOOD ARE PRAYING FOR TAYLOR WE LOVE HER!!!!!!
If I were you, southernbelle, I'd pray for a better grasp of the English language than for a pop star to gain entry to another country.
I appreciate your comments for the bad grammer. Would you like me to type it again for your pathetic, rampant, quickness to repost about my typing!
For all you Taylor HATERS out there... it seems to me that the Officials at the John Lennon airport have made a mistake. If she was guilty, she would have been deported ASAP, but she wasn't. Sounds a little fishy to me. I've done a little research and found that THIS IS NOT the first time that John Lennon airport has acted "inappropriately"!
Hi SImon h b..You are both ignorant and a maker of false allegations.
Taylor doesn't have a record label neither did she nor her Grand Mother call Immigration officials ' Idiots' as you claim.
And as far as running to the papers, as you report, The press is our first line of 'freedom of speech'. The Liverpool Echo are the same newspaper who broke the story of how Liverpool John Lennon Airport hired 7 illegal immigrants as Immigrant officials in 2005!!!!!
These two Americans have the guts to make their story public. You seem to think their racism allegations are unlikely.Why would you suspect this , what do you know that we don't??.And personally if you find their story tiresome then I suggest you go to sleep or stop wasting you time talking rubbish and go and play with your train set or stamp collection !
Things, dear Simon , are not always as they appear. We live in a world where not everything adds up as it apparently does in your naive and small minded , world !
I think, Simon, you need to become more acquainted with what and who you are talking about. We don't need anymore Arm-Chair Critics who have nothing better to do than make negative rants without having their facts in place!
Regards , Andy Burrows
BTW - under the legal appeals system against the Border Agency , as a non EU visitor the only right to appeal is under the title ' RACISM'.
Know your facts !!!!!!!!!!!
ITT: trolled amerifags.
commence lulz.
OHH my and yet another ANTI-AMERICAN COMMENT! You must feel like a real WINNER! Taylor has done nothing wrong you evidently do not know your own laws!!! know your facts!!!!!!!!! A word that discribes you is "repugnant". Wow this is crazy we Americans Love the UK and this is how we are treated!!! WE LOVE YOU TAYLOR!!!!
WOW... "trolled Amerifags"... it's people like you that are making this world such an "UGLY" place! Hearing that remark makes me believe that Taylor Horns allegations are true!
@anonymous 14/7/09 4:35 PM
A non-visa national still needs a visa if they're intending to work in the UK. There is room for performers who are attending auditions or making personal appearances that do not involve performances to enter without a visa, what appears to have happened in this case is that the Immigration Officials weren't convinced that Horn was going to be staying within the rules. Hence the need for 'sponsorship'.
@southernbelle
Where did you look her up and see that she had the correct documentation? Have you a URL you could share?
@anonymous 14/7/09 8:07 PM
You're confusing John Lennon Airport and the UK Border Agency; the airport has nothing to do with immigration decisions.
@Andy Burrows
Blimey, you're not the Andy Burrows, are you?
You're quite right, BIM is Ms Horn's publisher rather than label. I regret the error.
Beyond that, though, you're a little confused; firstly, it was the original anonymous poster who called immigration officers idiots, and it in response to that message that I was referring.
I'm not sure I quite follow your logic - I shouldn't express or even have an opinion on a story in a newspaper, but the newspapers are an important bastion of our freedom of speech. Although you can't respond to anything that appears in the newspapers.
I have no idea why you think a story about something entirely different appearing in the Liverpool Echo has any relevance here. There also is no role at the airport called "immigrant official"; if you meant immigration officials they are not employed by the airport. I think what you might be talking about is this story from 2005, where seven people with incorrect paperwork were found to be working in the car park - some with expired paperwork, some in breach of the terms of their visas and some people whose application for asylum had been turned down: so not "illegal immigrants", and not working for immigration. Oh, and the story wasn't broken by the Echo, it was announced by the police and Home Office. But where were we?
Why would I suspect the story of anti-American racism to be unlikely? Experience of having used JLA on a number occasions, of having lived in Liverpool for many years and of the UK Border staff I've come into contact with. It's not, of course, impossible - and it might be that, clearly already upset, Horn and her grandmother may have misinterpreted a remark essayed with no side as being somehow anti-American. Perhaps if when they were either running to the paper or bravely sharing their story (you say potato, I say tomato) they had gone into a little more detail we could judge.
It's not the story that I find tiresome, it's their reaction to it (especially as, we all discovered later, they were merely relocated to Heathrow where their paperwork was corrected) and the crying of 'racism'.
Train set... stamp collection... oh, you big tease, you, Andy.
Interesting that you tell me to not take things at face value for, erm, running a blog entry which raised a curious eyebrow at the apparent face-value story in a newspaper.
Oh, and armchair is one word. I'd suggest - and please take this advice in the generous spirit in which it is intended - if you don't care to hear what people have to say about things, you might want to steer clear of reading blogs altogether. There's an awful lot of comment in them.
@anonymous - I suspect it might be Andy again - 14/7/09 8:26 PM
Yes. Know your facts. Always good advice. Non EU-nationals also have the right to appeal on human rights grounds; the right to appeal an immigration decision on racial discrimination grounds is different from the raising of a complaint on the grounds of discriminatory behaviour - in much of the coverage the two different responses seem to have been conflated into one.
Anonymous @15/7/09 3:59 PM
You do realise the 'commence lulz' commenter doesn't actually work for the UK Border Service, does he?
Wow simon you have a answer for everything! I suggest you be more carefull about what you say! Sounds like you may work for immigration! And it also sounds like your way too interested in Taylor horn to keep leaving message so often. Have you ever questioned that mabe all this DID IN FACT HAPPEN! humm you are a little fishy to me!
Where ever you go everyone has an opinion, some we like....some well let us just say are "out there." Reguardless if Taylor Horn and her Grandmother's paperwork was up to par or not(which I read it was), I do not think they were here to be terrorist. Therefore, I can not understand some of the hostility I have read. I think somewhere it is getting lost that this is just a 16 year old child and a disabled Grandmother. These are people we are talking about! I can not believe some of the awful things being said about people who are much the same as you all....H U M A N!!
I read she was given a reprieve, so I guess she can stay.
@pardon-you
Yes, you've got me banged to rights. Me and my pesky answers. I'm actually the head of the UK Border Patrol; I created this blog the best part of a decade ago, slowly building up a number of posts showcasing the musical guests on Pebble Mill At One, purely because I suspected that one day I might have to make a spirited defence of my staff.
I also have a blog about power-walking in case - as part of my other role heading up Huntingdon Life Sciences - I ever have the need to somehow test a man who can walk quite quickly against a monkey.
@anonymous 15/7/09 10:12 PM
What has this to with terrorism, either real or imagined? Most State activity on the UK borders is about revenue protection and rights of residence or entry into the UK and nothing to do with terrorism. I don't think even the most strident of Ms Horn's detractors have suggested that she represented a terrorist threat to the nation. The problem was that she didn't have any concrete proof of what her intentions were in the UK. That appears to now have been furnished. All's well that ends well, eh?
Ok read this Article....
16 July 2009 12:28 AM
LOCAL NEWS
American pop singer Taylor Horn allowed to stay in UK
By Luke Traynor
AN AMERICAN teenage singer caught up in an immigration row at Liverpool airport is being allowed to stay.Taylor Horn, 16, and her wheelchair-bound grandmother Lesley Jones were hours from being deported last Friday before the government handed them a reprieve.The dispute centres around the details of the singer's visit to the UK, which she claims is purely promotional with no money being earned.But immigration bosses appear to be suggesting that Taylor, dubbed the new Britney Spears, should have presented a sponsorship certificate from her performing rights organisation, BMI.After being questioned for three hours on their arrival at John Lennon Airport, Taylor and Mrs Jones were later told they had to leave the country.But as they were travelling to Heathrow on Friday, an eleventh hour phone call informed them they could stay temporarily.A further series of interviews will take place on August 10 to determine their fate.Border Immigration UK, meanwhile, confirmed they had launched an investigation into alleged "Gestapo" tactics on the part of immigration officials.Miss Horn and Mrs Jones claimed they were denied phone calls, food and water, forced to sign unknown documents and subjected to anti-American gestures including one alleged throat-slitting gesture during the interrogation.Taylor is a resident of Britney Spears' hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana, and regular comparisons are made between her and Janis Joplin due to her gravelly voice.Today, grandmother Lesley, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and has had three heart attacks, told the ECHO: "I haven't slept for days because of all the worry."Since we've been here, we have done nothing but pump money into the British economy in the middle of a credit crunch."I see no point questioning us further next month. They have already done it for seven hours."Taylor had TV and radio interviews scheduled to promote her career in the UK.Official regulations appear to state non-Visa nationals do not require documentation to visit the country as an entertainer.A spokeswoman for UK Border Immigration said: "Taylor Horn is not being deported, she has been granted temporary admission."We are investigating a complaint she has made."
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• Taylor horn is a acceptional young lady! She evidently did follow the laws!! and had the proper paperwork! I ask why pick on this girl and her grandmother? And she is awesome and gives KENTWOOD LOUISIANA a great name and we are proud to say she is from our hometown! Go taylor we all love YOU! [southernbelle]
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@simon h b 15/7/09 10:36 PM
What has this to with terrorism, either real or imagined?
What it has to do with terrism is simple. Making threats to a known adult terrist is one thing, threating a child is quite another.
Walk Tall Tay....you are loved and supported. Your professionalism is shinning through, we are so proud of you!
handsome people like anon are making the world a handsome place. gtfo. more whining.
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