--- title: British Musician Denied Entry to U.S. Over Visa, Not Trump description: A British punk singer who was denied entry into the U.S. claimed it was due to a Donald Trump impersonation, but he had a visa problem. canonical: https://time.com/4885829/trump-impersonation-visa-problem/ author: Entertainment Weekly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-03T15:29:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:46:07.649Z og:title: British Singer Who Impersonated Trump Denied Entry to U.S. og:description: Due to a Visa problem though Peter Bywaters said it was because of the impression og:url: https://time.com/4885829/trump-impersonation-visa-problem/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: British Singer Who Impersonated Trump Denied Entry to U.S. twitter:description: Due to a Visa problem though Peter Bywaters said it was because of the impression twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # British Punk Singer Who Impersonated President Trump Denied Entry to U.S. Due to Visa Problem by [Oliver Gettell / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Oliver Gettell / Entertainment Weekly Aug 3, 2017 3:29 PM UTC by [Oliver Gettell / Entertainment Weekly](https://time.com/author/entertainment-weekly/) ## Oliver Gettell / Entertainment Weekly Aug 3, 2017 3:29 PM UTC A British punk singer who claimed he was denied entry to the United States because he previously impersonated President Trump onstage did not have a proper visa to perform in the U.S., according to Customs and Border Protection officials. Peter Bywaters, the lead singer of Peter and the Test Tube Babies, [told Team Rock ](http://teamrock.com/news/2017-08-02/peter-the-test-tube-babies-singer-deported-for-mocking-trump)in a recent interview that he had planned to rendezvous with his band mates and perform at the Punk Invasion 2K17 festival in Santa Ana, California, last weekend, only to be turned away by CBP officers in San Francisco. Bywaters said he was confronted with video of him dressed up as Trump during a concert in Germany last year, and “from there it all went downhill.” CBP spokesman Jaime Ruiz told EW that Bywaters’ lampooning Trump was not the reason he was blocked from entering the country. “The claim that he was refused entry to the United States because he mocked the president of the United States, that is absolutely not true,” Ruiz said Wednesday. “That is false. The reason he was denied entry was because he came with the wrong visa.” According to the CBP, Bywaters presented a visitor visa and did not initially disclose that he intended to perform during his trip. To do so, he would be required to have a P1 visa. Asked if CBP officers could deny entry to an artist or performer over their work or statements, Ruiz said the agency has discretionary authority to determine the line between entertainment or freedom of expression and legitimate threats to the U.S. Representatives for Peter and the Test Tube Babies did not respond to request for comment. According to the band’s Facebook page, several guest singers were enlisted to fill in for Bywaters at the festival. _This_ [_article_](http://ew.com/music/2017/08/02/british-punk-singer-trump-impersonation-denied-us-entry-wrong-visa/) _originally appeared on_ [_EW.com_](http://www.ew.com) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4885829/trump-impersonation-visa-problem/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4885829/trump-impersonation-visa-problem/"},"headline":"British Punk Singer Who Impersonated President Trump Denied Entry to U.S. Due to Visa Problem","datePublished":"2017-08-03T15:29:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:46:07.649Z","description":"Peter Bywaters claimed it was because he impersonated the President","url":"https://time.com/4885829/trump-impersonation-visa-problem/","keywords":["Newsfeed","politics","Music","Donald Trump","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Oliver Gettell / Entertainment Weekly"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4885829/trump-impersonation-visa-problem/","name":"British Punk Singer Who Impersonated President Trump Denied Entry to U.S. Due to Visa Problem"}}]}] ```