{"id":10060,"date":"2017-02-06T21:30:26","date_gmt":"2017-02-06T21:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2017\/02\/06\/even-with-travel-ban-blocked-artists-are-still-left-hanging\/"},"modified":"2017-02-06T21:30:26","modified_gmt":"2017-02-06T21:30:26","slug":"even-with-travel-ban-blocked-artists-are-still-left-hanging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/even-with-travel-ban-blocked-artists-are-still-left-hanging\/","title":{"rendered":"Even With Travel Ban Blocked, Artists Are Still Left Hanging"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Anastasia Tsioulcas<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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Syrian singer Omar Souleyman (performing here in Malm\u00f6, Sweden, in August 2016) is among the musicians whose performances in the U.S. have been left in limbo. Pacific Press\/LightRocket via Getty Images<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Pacific Press\/LightRocket via Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

President Trump’s executive order on immigration<\/a> restricting travel to the U.S. for travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries led to a firestorm of criticism, lawsuits and injunctions by five federal judges staying the order. But questions remain about who can and can’t come to this country. Among those caught in the confusion are a number of prominent musicians, whose personal lives \u2014 and livelihoods \u2014 have been put on hold.<\/p>\n

Omar Souleyman<\/a> is a Syrian singer who in recent years has collaborated with Bj\u00f6rk<\/a> and performed at the Nobel Peace Prize concert. Five years ago, he moved to the southeast of Turkey to avoid the war at home in Syria.<\/p>\n

Souleyman has a new album on the way, and he was planning a U.S. tour to promote it. He’s toured the U.S. 16 times before. This time around, says his manager, Mina Tosti, they were planning tour dates in New York, Detroit, Los Angeles and Arizona, and were in the thick of planning an appearance at the SXSW festival in March as well.<\/p>\n

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The visa paperwork for this trip was already well underway when the executive order was announced. When Tosti visited the homepage of the U.S. Embassy in Ankara last week, she saw this notice: “‘If you already have an appointment scheduled,'” she reads aloud, “‘please DO NOT ATTEND.’ Capital letters.”<\/p>\n

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