This story was originally produced by the Keene Sentinel. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
Ten days after he planned to come home from a visit to family in Canada, Christopher Landry is still on the other side of the border.
The Peterborough man said Tuesday he’s looking into hiring an attorney, but after being turned back unexpectedly at the border in Maine, he’s in Canada for the foreseeable future.
Landry isn’t alone. As President Donald Trump’s administration pushes to make good on mass deportation promises Trump made on the campaign trail, federal agencies have scaled up enforcement efforts, and legal residents have been impacted.
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Changes at the border
In a CNN appearance Sunday in which he was asked about legal immigrants feeling on edge due to the crackdowns at the border, “Border Czar” Tom Homan said “legal aliens and U.S. citizens should not be afraid that they’re going to be swept up.” But reports say situations like Landry’s are happening more and more.
Landry is a permanent resident of the United States, meaning he is a citizen of another country (Canada) but has been granted the legal right to live and work in the U.S. He’s lived in the Monadnock Region for most of his life and has a partner and children here, but returns to New Brunswick, Canada, periodically to visit family. He has never before had a problem at the border, he told The Sentinel last week.
“I always cross through the same port of entry, with zero issues. They scan my green card, ask me basic questions and send me on my way. That was not the case this time around,” he said.
In March, the New York Times reported immigration officers had begun using more “aggressive” tactics aimed at legal non-citizen residents at the border.
The story included several incidents in which legal permanent residents were subject to extended secondary inspection or denied reentry altogether while attempting to return from trips abroad.
A Washington Post report that same month described increasing use of discretionary authority by border patrol agents to deny returning residents reentry, and NPR followed the story of a 64-year-old woman who was detained for three months after returning from a trip abroad. Despite living in the U.S. for 50 years and traveling overseas several times in the past, a theft conviction from 2001 came up for the first time this year, and she was arrested at the Seattle airport.
The federal budget bill, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which Trump signed July 4, includes funding to hire thousands of new border personnel, increase detention capacity and pay for least one million more deportations annually, according to the White House.
A tangle of laws
Some of the federal laws that govern non-citizen entry to the United States are straightforward. For example, you can’t come here if you’re a known terrorist.
But the parts of the law relevant to Landry’s case are more complicated.
At the border in Houlton, Maine, on Sunday, July 6, U.S. immigration officers told Landry he was being denied reentry for the first time, and turned him around to Canada. Landry said they told him it was because of his criminal record, but the law isn’t clear on exactly why his past misdemeanors would lead to that.
In 1997, when he was 19, Landry was fined $110 for smoking where prohibited by law, according to documents from Eighth Circuit Court in Jaffrey. Seven years later, at 25, he was fined again — this time $300 for possession of a controlled drug, the documents show.
Finally, in 2007, he received two suspended 60-day sentences for driving an unregistered vehicle and possession of a controlled drug, according to the court documents.
Landry said both of the misdemeanor drug charges pertained to marijuana, which was, and still is, illegal in New Hampshire, although it has since been legalized in surrounding states.
Federal law lets border officers deny entry to non-citizens who have been convicted of any crime involving a controlled substance. But Enrique F. Mesa Jr., an immigration attorney based in Manchester, said minor charges like Landry’s could be eligible for a waiver.
Mesa, who is not working with Landry, said Landry’s past convictions would have shown up as violations when the immigration officer checked his background at the border. The officer then would have had to dig further to find that the charges were drug-related. That could be why Landry was able to cross the border without problems in the past, Mesa said — border officers are just paying more attention now.
Non-citizens can be denied entry if they’ve been involved with the U.S. criminal justice system and in some way failed to comply with it. But Landry says he showed up to court, paid his fines, and thought the process was over and done with.
He didn’t know the convictions could have immigration implications. For that reason, Mesa said Landry might be able to have the case reopened and the convictions vacated.
That’s one option to work toward a return, according to Mesa.
The other option, he said, would be to fight for a waiver.
Anxiety, preparation
Shortly after the November election, Ron Abramson, chair of the Immigration Law Group at Shaheen and Gordon, a law firm with offices throughout southern New Hampshire, told The Sentinel he worried many people didn’t realize that Trump’s plans for immigration policy could affect many legal residents, even naturalized citizens.
Mesa said he’s been taking a lot of calls from legal U.S. residents recently who are worried about potential consequences of leaving the country. People are scared, he said.
“This administration is really going to make it difficult for green card holders,” Mesa said. “... They are just being very, very conservative and very strict on who they’re letting into the country.”
Permanent residents need to make sure they know what’s on their record before leaving the country, Mesa said.
“Permanent residents have to be aware that if you committed an offense after that permanent residency [was granted], that is significant ... you really need to contact an immigration attorney and you really have to rethink travel,” he said. “This could happen to you.”
Without that pre-planning, Mesa said legal Granite State residents could get stuck in removal proceedings and sent to detention centers in New Hampshire or Vermont.
“It’s very scary,” he said. “We have a lot of people who have never seen the inside of a jail being put in minimal security because of, you know, five grams of marijuana.”
For now, it’s looking like Landry is going to be spending a lot more time with family in the Great White North this year than anticipated. And for other legal non-citizen residents across the country, stories like his are a chill warning, leading some to opt out of normal travel, according to reporting by the BBC.
Law firms across the country have published how-to guides and explainers about traveling in this political climate as a legal non-citizen resident.
In an April blog post, immigration attorney Akshat Divatia of Harris Sliwoski LLP said he recommends legal residents implement a “documentation strategy,” including carrying a valid U.S. driver’s license or state ID with a current address; copies of leases, mortgage documents or utility bills; IRS tax return transcripts; W-2 forms or pay stubs; U.S. bank account statements; health insurance coverage under U.S.-based policies; and affidavits or letters from U.S. citizen family members, if possible, explaining living arrangements and support.
For people with charges that were dismissed or that have been vacated, Mesa said it’s important to be able to present an official court record demonstrating that.
These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visit collaborativenh.org.
