Investigating suspicious claims when people arrive at immigration control is perfectly reasonable; if you claim to be speaking at a conference but they can't fi

Investigating suspicious claims when people arrive at immigration control is perfectly reasonable; if you claim to be speaking at a conference but they can't find any indication that said conference exists, holding on to you for a while makes sense. I hope that, even without your invitation letter, you eventually managed to put the CBSA agents in contact with someone who could verify your bona fides and they let you into the country though? To me, the largest problem with the reported story isn't that they weren't allowed into the US -- applying for a work visa, then trying to enter as tourists when you don't get the work visa is definitely suspicious behaviour -- but rather that they were kept in jail until they could be deported. These were not dangerous individuals; they could easily have been told to go find a hotel and stay there overnight but report back to be deported in the morning. Which, incidentally, is exactly what happened to a BSDCan attendee a few years ago when he was deemed inadmissible to Canada a few years ago: "You're not allowed in, but it's too late to send you back tonight and you seem harmless, so we're going to give you a 24 hour pass. Be back here at 9 AM tomorrow."