Argentine Jewish tango? Sounds fanstastic, doesnt it? USCIS doesn’t think so.

For Americans’ information, the most hated U.S. government agency in the world is not CIA, but USCIS, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. The draconian law restricting the employment and even travelling for many countries, are notorious. But I didn’t expect it could be so bureaucrat until I read this piece of news. (Wall Street Journal)

When Jordan Peimer booked an Argentine band that fuses Jewish Klezmer music with tango, he thought he had the perfect act to headline his "Fiesta Hanukkah" concert.

"It is hard to imagine any band more fitting than Orquesta Kef," says Mr. Peimer, the program's director at the Skirball Cultural Center here. The event was designed to attract a Jewish audience and the city's burgeoning Hispanic community.

That was before the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services weighed in with some cultural commentary of its own. The band couldn't travel to the U.S., the agency ruled, because it didn't satisfy a "culturally unique" requirement for a performer visa called P-3.

"The evidence repeatedly suggests the group performs a hybrid or fusion style of music...[which] cannot be considered culturally unique to one particular country, nation, society, class, ethnicity, religion, tribe or other group of persons," read the denial. It was signed by caseworker CSC4672/WS24533.

I am amazed that this way of dealing with foreign artist is not the distinct feature of my country’s government agencies.