Bartenders serve up drinks, customs checks
Policy at 2 halls called unfair to immigrants

By Maria Sacchetti

All the 33-year-old illegal immigrant wanted was a beer. After nearly a decade in this country, the Irish national knew to steer clear of police and federal agents. But he was stunned this month when a bartender at the Orpheum refused to serve him because his passport lacked a US Customs stamp.

The man grabbed his passport and fled, abandoning a $60 orchestra seat at a Ray Davies concert and igniting a debate over a new policy that one of the country’s largest concessionaires imposed at the Orpheum and at another popular live-music venue in Boston.

Officials at the Boston Culinary Group said they started checking for customs stamps last year to ensure that passports are authentic, not to enforce immigration law.

But critics of the policy say that the stamp is no guarantee of validity and that checking for it is frightening to immigrants.

“I said, ‘Who are you, immigration?â€