Puerto Rican singer Dangerous Bunny performing onstage in San Juan on July 11 through the first evening of his 30-show residency in Puerto Rico.
Ricardo Arduengo/AFP by way of Getty Photos
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Ricardo Arduengo/AFP by way of Getty Photos
In an interview with I-D journal earlier this month, megastar Puerto Rican singer and rapper Dangerous Bunny stated he selected to not do any live performance dates within the 50 states throughout his present world tour, as a result of he is afraid that ICE, as he stated, “could be outside my concert.” As a substitute, he did 30 exhibits in Puerto Rico, which reportedly introduced a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of tourism {dollars} to the island.
As a Puerto Rican, Dangerous Bunny is, in fact, a U.S. citizen. Performers from different nations are going through further points — notably hurdles in securing visas.
Performers, occasion presenters, reserving brokers and legal professionals inform NPR that they’re coping with quite a lot of uncertainty proper now – and so they have been very hesitant to talk on the file. They concern retaliation, together with by those that maintain decision-making energy over visa approvals or from those that maintain monetary sway, as a result of they management state, native or non-public funding.
Dangerous Bunny publicly expressed issues that his Latino followers can be focused for ICE enforcement. What does the Division of Homeland Safety say?
In a written assertion to NPR Thursday, assistant DHS secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote:
“Bad Bunny is either seriously misinformed about ICE operations or is using law enforcement as an excuse because he won’t be able to sell tickets in the United States. ICE is not raiding concert venues. Pop stars choosing to fearmonger and demonize ICE law enforcement are contributing to the nearly 1,000% increase in assaults on ICE officers. If Sabrina Carpenter and Tate McRae are going on tour, so can he.”
The Division of Homeland Safety has not supplied additional particulars or proof about these assault claims; in July, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem outlined violence towards ICE officers as together with doxxing brokers and videotaping officers.
Are different performers expressing related issues?
Folks within the leisure and the humanities industries say they proceed to be involved. In July, neighborhood leaders and native officers in Chicago accused federal brokers of concentrating on attendees on the Nationwide Museum of Puerto Rican Arts & Tradition, and shared video of ICE brokers at their museum. The Division of Homeland Safety denied these accusations on the time. Regardless, of us working in tradition and leisure are frightened about related conditions doubtlessly occurring at their occasions.
What about overseas artists who need to come to the US?
Overseas guests coming to the U.S. as entertainers must have a particular type of work visa, and a few artists and presenters have had dates canceled or delayed because of visa points. Earlier this month, the Korean boy band Be:Max was pressured to cancel U.S. tour dates, saying that their visas had been canceled near their deliberate appearances. (NPR reached out repeatedly to Be:Max and their live performance promoters, however didn’t obtain any replies.) In July, the duo TwoSet Violin postponed plenty of U.S. dates when its member Brett Yang, an Australian violinist, had his preliminary visa software rejected.
However there are actually new monetary and logistical hurdles to beat within the strategy of getting a visa. Earlier this month, the State Division introduced that candidates must return to their nation of nationality or full-time residency to use for visas to go to the U.S. And that creates massive, costly issues for performers who earn their cash touring the world.
What does this imply for artists?
This is a hypothetical instance: Say a performer initially from India desires to use to come back do a tour within the U.S. — however they’re briefly working in Belgium. It was that they might go to the U.S. consulate in Belgium for his or her U.S. visa interview. The State Division is now saying no, they must fly dwelling to India to use and be interviewed there. That prices some huge cash and time, particularly for touring teams with massive bands and crews. As it’s, visa purposes can price upwards of $8,000 per particular person, together with authorized charges.
NPR reached out to the State Division for remark, which stated that they’re “upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process.”
So how lengthy does the visa course of take?
As of proper now, the federal government’s web site estimates that for the sorts of visas visiting performers sometimes use (O and P class visas), it’s going to take seven months. Immigration legal professionals inform NPR that seven months is an optimistic estimate — and are advising their purchasers to count on the method to take even longer. So if an artist desires to come back carry out within the U.S. in Sept. 2026, they’d finest get shifting. And that’s going to have an effect on which touring artists might in the end determine to decide like Dangerous Bunny and say, “Given the current circumstances, never mind. We’ll just skip the United States for now.”
Jennifer Vanasco edited this story for broadcast and digital.
