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When three of Finland's most popular musicians, including one described as that country's Bruce Springsteen, arrived for a recent tour in Minnesota, they expected a quick trip through airport customs....

"It was almost three hours of screaming, door-slamming and accusations, according to the report I received," said Marianne Wargelin, honorary Finnish consul for the Dakotas and most of Minnesota, which has the second largest Finnish-American population in the nation....

"From the beginning, they said I was lying, that these guys were coming here to work," said the veteran filmmaker, who said he has travelled to the United States at least 15 times without incident. "They were shouting at me, and people were going in and out of doors. They tried to put you down mentally, to humiliate you....

Two of the musicians are slated to return this year and are worried they may face other problems entering the country, in part because their passports have a big red flag. Immigration agents initially stamped "Refused Entry" on the passports, said Savolainen, and then later simply crossed that stamp out with a pen.

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Perhaps the most damning comment on the incident was delivered by the Finn who was strip-searched. On a couple of occasions prior to 1991, he was detained by the KGB and interrogated. Compared to the ICE agents here in the Twin Cities, the KGB operatives, he says, "at least acted like human beings. Not a bunch of animals."

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Immigration agents initially stamped "Refused Entry" on the passports, said Savolainen, and then later simply crossed that stamp out with a pen.

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