My friend was supposed to be in New Jersey this morning because his company sent him together with 3 other office mates. Then I received a text saying they'd be returning back to Manila, they were detained in US Customs for 4hours. It was because of their B1/B2 Visa. Their supposed stay there is 6 months so Custom said they should have gotten L1 instead.

Is this considered deportation? Can he apply for L1 again at what circumstances? They are badly needed for a Company project and their own apartments were already paid, their allowances were already given. Which fault is this?

Theirs - it is their responsibility to make certain that the legally enter and stay in the US.

It's not deportation if they were not allowed into the Country.

Were they coming from the Philippines, were they already in the US and travelling from place to place?

For whatever reason their names were apparently flagged by the Government. They can also retain an Attorney and reapply but that takes time.

Whose fault do you think this is?

Well their company is the one who applied for their Visa, they were in group. He was called for interview, got accepted and had his Visa. He's a first timer on this so just thought everything's fine since it's the Company who technically processed everything. They were not allowed into the country, they were sent back home after the scrutiny in the Customs but they were advised to get L1 Visa. My question is if the denial on port of entry would be an issue when getting another one.

No, it's not an issue. He wasn't deported. He was detained.

He should, of course, address this with the company and he has recourse against them if THEY were responsible for all of the paperwork and made the error.

Thank you so much for the response. I've also been researching about this issue but I needed a personal thought from some experts like you. :)

Come back and let us know how this works out, all right?

Yes ma'am, he's on his way home from the Manila Airport this morning, I'd have the chance to talk to him about it maybe after he reported to his Office tomorrow, I'd surely update this thread.

Good - someone else who comes along will learn from this experience and hopefully some EMPLOYER will learn to research before applying for admission for its employees.

(He's lucky to have such a good friend as you.)