Scores of international performers have had to cancel appearances since America tightened its visa rules and security checks this summer.
Performers and presenters in the US are losing money. The recording industry will be hampered, say critics of the policy. Labels prefer to issue CDs when a group is touring. And Americans are being deprived of cultural communication at a time when it is more crucial than ever before.
'This just increases the sense of isolation that's descending on the US and shows how much we're not in synch with the rest of the world,' says Richard Pena, director of the New York Film Festival.
Welsh harpist Robin Huw Bowen, Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami, Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki, Ibrahim Ferrer and Ruben Gonzalez of the Afro-Cuban All Stars, pianist Chucho Valdes, rapper X Alfonso, members of Sintesis, Humberto Solas, Polo Montanez, Iranian musician Hussein Alizadeh, Kayhan Kalhor, Bahman Ghobadi, Berlin's Artemis Quartet, Rohinton Mistry, Margaret Atwood, Burach ... all among the artists and performers
unable to enter the States, or whose entry has been made nigh-impossible.