A senior Immigration NZ official was hopeful that refusing entry to Los Angeles rap collective Odd Future in February would result in a “good news story” for the agency.
In a controversial decision, the group were barred from entering the country to perform at the Rapture Festival in Auckland, on the grounds of potential threat to public order and the public interest.
But a request made to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment under the Official Information Act for all advice on the decision has revealed [pdf] that border operations manager Karen Urwin was hopeful the decision would result in positive coverage of the government agency.
On Wednesday February 12 – days before Odd Future were due to perform at Western Springs Stadium, alongside Eminem – an email had been sent with high importance: “Anything (legal) we can use to stop these people from coming?”
In the email chain that followed, Urwin commented:
Given that this group’s intended appearance already has the lobby groups up in arms, our denying them entry will undoubtedly generate some media interest (shades of Mike Tyson,) however I think we have the opportunity to spin this in to a good news story for INZ. There is also the strong possibility that the group will make some very public (and offensive) protestations but in my view this will only serve to reinforce the appropriateness of our decision.
Another staff member agreed that it was “a good story for INZ”.
Though Urwin said at the time that Odd Future was barred on grounds of threat to public order, and not because of their lyrical content, internal correspondence – the sender and recipient(s) of which has been redacted in reliance on the section of the Act that protects the privacy of natural persons – shows the explicit content of their music was taken into account:
This group clearly has a history of promoting and inciting hatred. ... Their lyrics are homophobic and racist. They glorify rape and murder fantasies, as well as cannibalism and necrophilia. ... Were they to be permitted to travel to New Zealand and to perform I believe, on the basis of their track record thus far, that they are likely to incite violence (towards women), racial, sexist and homophobic disharmony in New Zealand.
In his covering letter to the OIA response, Immigration Group General Manager of Intelligence, Risk and Integrity Steve Stuart said that Immigration NZ’s decision was informed by the group’s previous behaviour, and was not because of any complaint.
Stuart said Odd Future had incited public disorder in the past, pointing to the reported hospitalisation of a police officer in May 2011, and the reported inciting of violence against a female activist by Tyler, The Creator in June last year.
A month after Odd Future were refused entry into New Zealand, Tyler, The Creator was arrested after reportedly encouraging fans to push past security at a gig in Austin, Texas, which Immigration NZ told Radio New Zealand vindicated their earlier decision.