Thank goodness the Department of Homeland Security's on top of all the threats to American freedom -- the New York Times today profiles Nalini Ghuman (at right), a British musicologist and assistant professor at Mills College who hasn't been able to get back to Oakland to teach her classes and work on her book about composer Edward Elgar, because Immigration and Customs refuses to let her back in the country.

Ghuman is a British citizen born in India, and an Oxford and Berkeley graduate who's working on a book about the influence of India on English music. She was coming back from England in August 2006 through SFO with her fiance when she got called over by security, who then spent 8 hours questioning her. They ripped up her H-1B Visa (good through May 2008), seemed suspicious about her music tapes, questioned why she'd listed Welsh as a language she spoke, and described her as Hispanic in their notes. They also admitted they didn't really understand why she was on their watch list, but that in any event, she wasn't going to be allowed back to the US.

After flying back to London, Ghuman checked in with the U.S. Embassy and was advised it was probably all a mistake, but they still haven't gotten her paperwork in order. Musicologists across the country and world are rallying to her cause, with people writing letters to avid amateur pianist Condi Rice to ask her to intercede and inviting her to speak at conferences outside the US.

Meanwhile, Ghuman says she doesn't understand why she's considered a threat, saying, "It’s not only insulting and heartbreaking, but how? In what way? Musicians, dangerous people? Is it my piano playing?" Well, Elgar did write -- the Enigma Variations. (And Pomp and Circumstance.)