Here's your Immigration Control at work at US international airports.

Just heard of two instances at the Denver International Airport where ICE turned away German high school students because they were coming in for two weeks of summer enrichment / summer academic camp at a major US university. German high school students! Turned around and sent home. What an impression this made. They'll tell everyone back home. The second instance the interrogation of a Japanese high school student in the US on a tourist visa for two weeks of cultural learning. ICE claimed they were in one the wrong visas, and that high school students learning for two weeks could be on a tourist visa, but because they were learning, they needed a degree seeking visa.

I say this a lot, but you have to know a great way to combat this is to have your network at hand if you're coming to the US because you don't know how ICE will interpret regulations when they don't understand them. (1) Have the name of your consulate on speed dial, make them aware you're coming; (2) Have the numbers of family members or educators or corporate connections; (3) Have the number of CNN or MSNBC or the NY Times on dial; (4) know that ICE can't read; (5) know that the US State Department is vastly understaffed. Who knows who can be next. French? Italians? Canadians? God knows that not having guns and have health insurance makes those Canadians angry and dangerous!