Bartender Allegedly Discriminates After Checking Customer's Passport

(Image from IrishEmigrant.com)

The following article is from the Irish Emigrant.

Two Irishmen and a Colombian went into bar. The bartender said, "I can't serve you because you don't have a stamp in your passport."

Not a particularly strong punch line, but then it's not a joke.

A 33-year old Irish construction worker was refused service at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Boston last month because the barman said he didn't have a valid U.S. "customs" stamp in his passport.

"I said (to the barman), ‘Who are you, immigration?'" the man told the Boston Globe. "It was a shock."

Unnerved by the questioning and by the, albeit unrelated, presence of a pair of police cars outside, he left the $60 Ray Davies show and went home in a cab.

His two mates left at half-time feeling sour. One of them contacted the Irish Immigration Center, who took the incident to the Boston Globe and New England Cable News.

Both new organizations ran stories last week - and ignited a fresh public debate about civil liberties and immigrant rights.

The bartender was enforcing the written rules of Boston Culinary Group - the concessions giant who run the bars at the Orpheum and the Bank of America Pavilion as well as other venues across the country.

Their policy states to that to be valid for service a foreign passport must possess a valid "U.S. customs" stamp.

State law lists a driver's license, a military card, a passport and a state liquor card as acceptable forms of establishing age.

"I've been serving beer in this state for years and been accepting passports for I.D. for years," said Sean McCormick of Porterbellys in Brighton (in Boston) who was also at the show. "Foreign passports are one of four acceptable identification documents by law. The notion of asking for a stamp or a visa is ridiculous and discriminatory."

This view has the sympathy of the chairman of Boston's Licensing Board, Dan Pokaski, who said that "I just think that you're really taking a class of people and based on the lack of a customs stamp you're denying them service.

"I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that."

The Boston Culinary Group did not return phone calls to New England Cable News but did speak with the Boston Globe. They defended their policy saying that they were not trying to enforce immigration law but merely establish that passports are authentic.

The Irish Immigration Center responded sharply that there are several reasons why an authentic passport may not have a stamp - it could be a passport issued by an embassy here in the U.S., or the bearer could be a Green Card holder who just uses it for I.D.

"Determining immigration status isn't their goal", said IIC Board President Joanna Connolly. "But that is the effect. My Irish passport doesn't have a U.S. stamp and it is perfectly valid."

Advocates say the episode further highlights further the precarious place of the undocumented who are not eligible for driver's licenses.

Thomas Keown is a spokesman at the Irish Immigration Center in Boston.

source: IrishEmigrant.com/boston

Copyright 2008 New England Ethnic News, EthnicNewz.org. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express permission of the news source. Contact NEWz for more information.
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