Ramachandran Guha, a historian from Bangalore, was denied entry into the U.S. on a lecture trip to Oberlin and UC Berkeley. He says he had a valid visa and supporting letters. The reason? Immigration officials disbelieved his sizeable speaking fee (via Amardeep Singh):

Why was I stopped? One reason might have been my jhola, a patch of mirrorwork on red… Another, certainly, was the letter of invitation from Oberlin, which specified a fee for my lectures which greatly angered [immigration officer] McCullough. “How can they pay you so much,” he said more than once, adding, “And for teaching history.”…

Berkeley and Oberlin are now planning a joint letter of protest. Meanwhile, they’ve written me handsome letters of apology, expressing shock at “such discriminatory and unjustified exclusion”, and anger at the “terrible injustice you had to endure… [from] these cretins”.