A.V. Club reported today that a member of several bands playing this year's South By Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, uncovered an ominous clause in his bands' contracts with the festival. While it is an attempt to stop unsanctioned SXSW shows, if SXSW finds out an international artist is playing a show that’s not officially part of the festival it will “notify the appropriate U.S. Immigration authorities of the above actions,” and that bands must know that “accepting and performing at any non-sanctioned events may result in immediate deportation, revoked passport, and denied entry by US Customs Border Patrol at US points of entry.”

After looking through this contract sent to me by sxsw I have decided to cancel Told Slant's performance at the festival pic.twitter.com/rI2Xv0duJl

— Told Slant (@Felixixix666) March 2, 2017

During the madness of SXSW, unofficial shows and day parties happen all over Austin, as bands try to maximize their time at the festival and the rampant opportunities to get noticed by the industry movers-and-shakers who swarm the city during the music portion of the fest. Many bands play multiple sets per day while there.

The festival's penalties for U.S. bands are relatively minor – canceled hotels and revoked SXSW badges – compared to its penalties for international bands who violate this clause, especially in light of the country's current climate of heightened tension over any topic broaching the subject of immigration. As the A.V. Club points out, "Not only could it potentially ruin an artist’s career, it could make it so they’d never be able to return to the United States."

Stereogum, however, points out that this is not a new addition to SXSW's contracts with bands. But no matter how you slice it, in Trump's America, it comes off as a threat. Felix Walworth, the member of the band Told Slant, who originally tweeted about this clause, has canceled his SXSW performances and is urging other performers to do the same.

It is important to note that SXSW is doing a showcase called Contrabanned: #MusicUnites, which shows supports for artists (performers from the seven banned nations will play) impacted by Trump’s recent ban on visitors from seven Muslim nations, along with panels on the immigration ban.

The festival takes place March 10-19, 2017 in Austin, Texas.

Update: SXSW Co-Founder and CEO Roland Swenson has issued the following statement on this issue:

“SXSW has been vocal in its opposition to President Trump’s Travel Ban and is working hard to build a coalition of attorneys to assist artists with issues at U.S. ports of entry during the event. We have artists from 62 countries from around the world performing and have always supported our international music community. We have never reported international showcasing artists to immigration authorities.

We were sorry to learn that one of our invited performers chose to cancel his performance at this year’s SXSW Music Festival due to a misunderstanding of our policies regarding international artists.

We understand that given the current political climate surrounding immigration, the language that was published seems strong. Violating U.S. immigration law has always carried potentially severe consequences, and we would be remiss not to warn our participating acts of the likely repercussions.

Language governing SXSW’s ability to protect a showcase has been in the artist Performance Agreement for many years. It is, and always was intended to be, a safeguard to provide SXSW with a means to respond to an act that does something truly egregious, such as disobeying our rules about pyrotechnics on stage, starting a brawl in a club, or causing serious safety issues.”