Brit Punk Band U.K. Subs Refused U.S. Entry

By James Conrad

Legendary British first-wave punk band U.K. Subs encountered trouble upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport ahead of their main stage appearance at the L.A. Punk Invasion festival at the Belasco Theater, scheduled for 15 March 2025.

Longtime bass player Alvin Gibbs, along with guitarist Marc Carrey and drummer Stefan Häublein were stopped at the airport and denied entry to the U.S. Though founding singer Charlie Harper was allowed to pass through, he ended up having to assemble a last-minute pickup band to fulfill the group’s contractual obligation.

Alvin Gibbs related the harrowing experience via Facebook on Wednesday, 19 March 2025.

“Some of you might have seen posts on U.K. Subs’ websites, which provide photos and video of a random line-up playing with Charlie at a Los Angeles Punk festival at the weekend. You might therefore be wondering ‘how come?’ Well, the truth is that Stefan, Marc and I were all denied entry into the USA whilst somehow – perhaps he used a Jedi mind trick, or, more likely, caught an immigration officer at the end of their shift eager to get home – Charlie managed to get in. Having already been on a plane for 11 hours, upon my partner Roz and I arriving at the immigration booth we were beckoned to, we were told that Roz could go through, but something had flagged up which required my being taken away for questioning. There were two issues: 1) they said I didn’t have the right visa for entry and 2) there was another issue, which they wouldn’t disclose, both of which prevented me from being allowed into America – I’m now wondering if my regular and less than flattering public pronouncements regarding their president and his administration were a factor; or maybe that’s just me succumbing to paranoia. I was then taken by two police officers to another part of LAX and escorted to a very cold holding pen where I discovered Stefan and Marc in situ along with some Columbian, Chinese and Mexican detainees.

My luggage, phone and passport were all taken from me, and at 4am (I’d arrived in LA at 7pm) I took part in a second interview conducted by a very sympathetic female immigration officer, who even kindly went out into the airport to see if she could find Roz to update her on my situation and pass on information regarding the enforced flight I was to take back from whence I came. She did both, and I’m most indebted to Officer Jones for her assistance and decency. Luckily, Roz was able to change her flight to the same one that I was escorted onto by two police officers at 8pm the next day – at that point I’d been in the holding room for 25 hours without sleep and with only a pot noodle and a couple of cups of tea to sustain me. Roz had been obliged to spend 25 hours in the airport waiting for me to emerge. Another eleven hour flight was then endured, the worst bit being I was denied any alcohol because its United Airlines’ policy that any passenger being escorted onto a flight in that manner cannot be served as much as a single glass of wine: Stefan and Marc, on the other hand, who travelled back via British Airways, were allowed to make the most of the free booze on their flight to help offset the stress of our shared experience. I’m really sad that the true UK Subs were unable to provide the performance and the diverse set we’d prepared, all of which the audience deserved; although kudos and congrats are in order for the three musicians who stepped in last minute to play with Charlie.”

Gibbs also posted a selfie attached to the post, in which the exhaustion and exasperation can be seen in his eyes. Despite that, he ultimately took a stoic and philosophical view of his adversity with a dash of good, old-fashioned punk rock rebellion thrown in for good measure.

“…although not being something I’d want to replicate, it was actually an educational experience and, honestly, I’m kind of proud of myself for being thrown out of America at the age of 67, now knowing that my relationships with that country is over for the foreseeable future,” he writes “And maybe, just maybe, that’s why the chorus of [“I’m So Bored With The U.S.A.” by the Clash] keeps running around my head.”

This situation ought not be characterized as an isolated incident. What’s more, although Alvin Gibbs jokes about being paranoid about his suspicion that his criticism of Trump ended him up in trouble with U.S. immigration officers, his assumption might not be incorrect. On the same day that he offered his account, the Guardian reported that an unnamed French scientist traveling to a conference near Houston, Texas on assignment from Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique was turned away when border officials found written exchanges on his phone that offered pointed criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump.

These incidents strongly give the awful impression that the United States is regressing downhill without brakes into fascism. According to the text Section One of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Moreover, as we all ought to know by now, the First Amendment explicitly declares that “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech” and I’m pretty sure that the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees exemption from unreasonable searches and seizures, should deter people charged with enforcing laws from snooping through anybody’s private correspondence if there is no probable cause that a real crime has been or will be committed.

Naturally this means that if anybody on U.S. soil has reason to believe that President Donald Trump is a cruel, dishonest, immoral, ham-fisted and stupid fucking asshole, they ought to have the right to say so without fear of reprisal. 

Though neither the members of U.K. Subs nor the CNRS researcher are U.S. citizens, they were on U.S. soil, therefore they should have been granted the rights outlined in the aforementioned amendments.

Doubtlessly, there is cause to worry about the escalation of the Trump administration’s encroachments upon people’s Constitutional rights as a reprisal for any justifiable criticism.