Many Canadians travelling to the United States will now have to newly register with the U.S. government as of Friday or face potential fines or jail time.
The requirement stems from an executive order that U.S. President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office for non-citizens who are in the country for 30 days or longer, though the administration has argued that a registration requirement has always existed and that officials are now simply enforcing it for everyone.
A U.S. federal judge on Thursday allowed the Trump administration to move forward with the requirement that unauthorized persons must register with the federal government and carry documentation.
Beginning Friday, Canadians over the age of 14 who will be in the U.S. for that length of time will have to register with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where the USCIS agency is housed, have emphasized in news releases this year that the registration requirement will be fully enforced. DHS says the number of people overall who stand to be affected by the rule, not just Canadians, could be between 2.2 million and 3.2 million.
“U.S. authorities strictly enforce entry requirements,” the Canadian government said in an updated travel advisory last week. “Expect scrutiny at ports of entry, including of electronic devices. Comply and be forthcoming in all interactions with border authorities. If you are denied entry, you could be detained while awaiting deportation.”
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Janie Patterson, a Canadian who has been travelling extensively to Florida for the past 10 years, told CBC News on Friday that the registration requirement was “surprising and inconvenient and conjures up a lot of concerns as to what’s going to happen next.”
That sentiment is common, according to the site Snowbirdadvisor.ca, which has noted “widespread misinformation and conflicting information circulating online and through word of mouth about the new registration requirements, which has created anxiety and confusion among Canadian snowbirds ….”
Part of the confusion stems from the differences that often occur when Canadians travel to the U.S. by plane as opposed to entering the country at a land border.
Many who fly would have already received the required I-94 form, and they don’t have to register if they’ve previously submitted it. Most driving to the U.S. aren’t handed an I-94.
To find out their status, travellers need to input their travel information online via a U.S. immigration website upon arrival.
Those required to register must carry proof of registration at all times or face fines of up to $5,000 or imprisonment for up to six months, or both.
Canadians at this point are exempt from submitting their fingerprints, a requirement citizens from other countries staying in the U.S. for over 30 days will face.
Patterson, who has returned to Canada for the year, has often driven back and forth across the border. But she said for next year, she’s contemplating flying “to avoid just the whole mess crossing the border, possibly being detained.”
The implementation comes at a time of heightened tensions between the countries. The president has mused at length that Canada should be another U.S. state, while a few Canadian business sectors have been among the first slapped with the second Trump administration’s imposition of new tariffs.
The number of return trips among Canadians travelling to the U.S. in March plummeted compared with the previous year: 32 per cent lower for trips by land and a 13.5 per cent decline for those travelling by air.
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While the weakness of the Canadian dollar has loomed large, recent news coverage of heavy-handed treatment of tourists and students by front-line immigration personnel could dissuade would-be travellers to the U.S.
“In past administrations, you wouldn’t see these cases,” Len Saunders, a U.S. immigration lawyer, told CBC News. “It’s almost like the pendulum has gone 180 degrees, from low enforcement to just maximum enforcement.”
In Thursday’s court ruling, Judge Trevor Neil McFadden — appointed by Trump to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2017 — sided with the administration, which had argued that officials were simply enforcing a requirement that already existed.
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McFadden’s ruling didn’t go into the substance of those arguments but rested largely on the technical issue of whether the groups pushing to stop the requirement had standing to pursue their claims. He ruled they didn’t.
One of those groups, the National Immigration Law Center, called the ruling “disappointing” and urged people who think they might be affected to “consult with an immigration attorney to better understand the consequences of registering or not.”
Federal immigration law requiring people who aren’t American citizens and live in the U.S. to register with the government came into effect with the Alien Registration Act of 1940, with guidance updated with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.
Enforcement of such requirements has been inconsistent at best, however, with the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks one of the rare exceptions.
Trump’s executive order in January was followed by advice from Homeland Security officials on Feb. 25 for people to self-deport if they weren’t willing to register.
The administration has pursued an aggressive deportation strategy, even expelling some migrants to separate, third countries not of origin. Others who applied for asylum using an app introduced by the previous Democratic administration have been told to self-deport as their claims will no longer be considered, it was reported this week.
Leaving aside foreign nationals who take extended American trips like the Canadian snowbirds, the U.S. does have a significant issue with unauthorized persons within its borders, estimated at between 11 million and 12 million people by various immigration think-tanks.
While migrants crossing between border points into the U.S. are an attention-grabbing, hot-button issue politically, so-called visa overstays are a significant driver of the unauthorized number. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it was reported that tens of thousands of Canadians overstayed their visa each year — although, according to U.S. government data, the figure has dropped slightly.
But groups like the the National Immigration Law Center have argued the U.S. government should have implemented a lengthier public notification process before bringing about the change.
And many who don’t fall into the winter traveller category and have established careers or deep family ties in the U.S. face the choice of coming forward to register, with a government seemingly intent on carrying out large-scale deportations, or staying under the radar and risking jail time.
