Many Canadians traveling to the United States will now have to register recently with the United States government from Friday or face potential fines or time in jail.
The requirement comes from an executive order that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, signed on his first day in the position of non -citizens who are in the country for 30 days or more, although the administration has argued that there has always been a registration requirement and that officials are now simply applying it for all.
A federal judge of the United States allowed Thursday that the Trump administration advanced with the requirement that unauthorized persons must register in the federal government and bring documentation.
As of Friday, Canadians over 14 who will be in the United States during that period of time will have to register with the United States citizenship and immigration services (USCIS).
Officials of the Department of National Security (DHS), where the USCIS agency is located, have emphasized the news communications this year that the registration requirement will be completely applied. DHS says that the number of people in general who will be affected by the rule, not only Canadians could be between 2.2 million and 3.2 million.
“The US authorities strictly enforce the entry requirements,” the Canadian government said in a travel warning updated last week. “Wait scrutiny in entry ports, including electronic devices. Make and communicate in all interactions with border authorities. If you are denied entry, you could be stopped while waiting for deportation.”
The Federal Government has silently updated its online travel advice to remind Canadians who “expect scrutiny” of the border patrol officers if they travel to the United States.
No fingerprints for Canada are required
Janie Patterson, a Canadian who has been traveling a lot to Florida during the last 10 years, told CBC News on Friday that the registration requirement was “surprising and inconvenient and evokes many concerns about what will happen next.”
That feeling is common, according to the Snowbirdvisor.CA site, which has indicated “generalized erroneous information and contradictory information that circulates online and with mouth to mouth about the new registration requirements, which has created anxiety and confusion between Canadian snow birds …”
Part of the confusion comes from the differences that often occur when Canadians travel to the United States by plane instead of entering the country on a terrestrial border.
Many of those who fly would have already received form I-94 required, and do not have to register if they have previously sent it. Most of them lead to the US. UU. An I-94 is not given.
To find out their status, travelers must enter their online travel information through an US immigration website. upon arrival.
Those required to register must transport registration voucher at all times or face fines of up to $ 5,000 or prison for up to six months, or both.
Canadians at this point are exempt from presenting their digital footprints, a requirement of citizens of other countries that remain in the US. Uu. For more than 30 days they will face.
Patterson, who has returned to Canada during the year, has often led from one place to another through the border. But he said that for next year, he is contemplating to fly “to avoid only all the disaster crossing the border, possibly detained.”
‘Pendulum has gone 180 degrees’
The implementation comes at a time of high tensions among countries. The president has extended that Canada should be another state of the United States, while some Canadian business sectors have been among the first slapped with the imposition of new rates of the second Trump administration.
The number of return trips among Canadians traveling to the US. In March it collapsed compared to the previous year: 32 percent lower for land trips and a 13.5 percent decrease for those traveling by air.
The new data reveal a significant fall in Canadian trips to the United States, which causes questions about changing tourist habits. The travel consultant McKenzie McMillan intervenes the numbers and where the Canadians are directed.
While the weakness of the Canadian dollar has fallen a great coverage of recent news of tourists and students by first -line immigration personnel could deter possible travelers to the United States.
“In past administrations, I would not see these cases,” said Len Saunders, immigration lawyer from the United States, CBC News. “It is almost as if the pendulum had passed 180 degrees, from the low application to the maximum application.”
In the ruling of the court on Thursday, Judge Trevor Neil McFadden, appointed by Trump for the United States District Court for the Columbia district in 2017, was put on the side of the administration, which had argued that officials were simply applying a requirement that already existed.
Canadian actress Jasmine Mooney tells CBC News about her terrible 11 -day experience in ice arrest after trying to enter the United States to renew her work visa. Mooney describes what he saw as “unpleasant”, saying his detention cell: “That place breaks you.”
The McFadden ruling did not enter the substance of these arguments, but was based largely on the technical theme of whether the groups that pushed to stop the requirement were reputable to pursue their statements. He ruled that they did not.
One of those groups, the National Immigration Law Center, described the “disappointing” ruling and urged people who think they could be affected to “consult an immigration lawyer to better understand the consequences of registering or not.”
Difficult choice for American residents has long authorized
The Federal Immigration Law that required people who are not US citizens and live in the United States to register with the Government entered into force with the Law of Registry of Foreigners of 1940, with updated guidance with the Immigration and Nationality Law of 1952.
However, the application of such requirements has been inconsistent at best, with the sequels of September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks one of the rare exceptions.
Trump’s executive order in January was followed by the National Security Officials Council on February 25 for people to deport themselves if they were not willing to register.
The administration has followed an aggressive deportation strategy, even expelling some migrants to separate, third countries, not of origin. Others who requested asylum using an application introduced by the previous democratic administration have been told to deport themselves, since their claims will no longer be considered, this week was reported.
Leaving aside foreign citizens who make extended US trips such as Canadian snow birds, the United States has a significant problem with unauthorized people within their borders, estimated between 11 million and 12 million people by various groups of immigration experts.
While migrants crossing the United States between border points are a political problem that attracts attention and is a hot problem, the so -called visa stays are a significant driver of the unauthorized number. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it was reported that tens of thousands of Canadians remained excess their visa every year, although, according to the United States government data, the figure has decreased slightly.
But groups such as the National Immigration Law Center have argued that the United States government should have implemented a longer public notification process before achieving change.
And many who do not fall into the winter traveler category and have established deep family ties or ties in the US. They face the choice to present themselves to register, with a government that apparently intends to carry out large -scale deportations or remain under the radar and risk the time of the prison.
