This story was originally produced by the Keene Sentinel. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.
A Cheshire County Superior Court judge moved Thursday to vacate the marijuana-related convictions that led to a Peterborough man being stopped at the Canadian border earlier this month.
Christopher Landry, 46, was turned back July 6 at a port of entry in Maine after a routine visit with family in New Brunswick, Canada. He said federal immigration officers told him he was denied re-entry because of misdemeanor drug offenses on his record that dated back about 20 years.
The court vacated those convictions Thursday after Landry's attorney, Ron Abramson, and an attorney for the state both said Landry likely didn't know there would be immigration consequences when he pleaded guilty to the charges in the early 2000s.
New Hampshire's rules of criminal procedure require that pleas be "knowing, intelligent and voluntary."
In an affidavit filed in the Keene court, Landry said he was born in New Brunswick but has been a lawful permanent resident of the United States since 1983, when he was a young child. Though he holds a green card, he previously told The Sentinel he never pursued citizenship because there never seemed to be a reason to do so.
Landry lives with his partner and five children, all U.S. citizens, in Peterborough.
"I have lived in this country since I was five years old," Landry wrote of the United States in court documents. "This is home, and I hope to be able to return to my life and eventually become a U.S. citizen."
In 2004, he was charged with possession of marijuana stemming from the discovery of marijuana residue on a pipe, he said in the affidavit. Three years later, he said, he faced a similar possession charge, this time for less than a quarter ounce of marijuana.
According to Landry's recollection and statements made in court Thursday by his attorney, Landry represented himself in both those cases, unaware that he could ask for a lawyer and without knowing that pleading guilty to the charges could have consequences for his immigration status.
He signed some paperwork, paid the fines, and left, he said.
"I know for sure that I had no idea that a couple of minor marijuana possession convictions would negatively affect my immigration status so many years later, leaving me stuck in Canada unable to return to the United States without fear of being detained and deported," he wrote.
Landry, who is still in Canada, was not in court Thursday. But according to a document filed by his attorney, he clearly remembers that "no one asked about his birthplace or U.S. immigration status" at the hearings for his drug convictions.
Federal law lets border officers deny entry to non-citizens who have been convicted of any crime involving a controlled substance, although minor charges like the ones Landry faced are sometimes eligible to be waived.
Cheshire County Attorney Chris McLaughlin said he believes courts have gotten better at making sure, on the record, that clients are aware of all the consequences of proceeding without a lawyer and of pleas.
"I have no doubt he was unaware of those [immigration] consequences," McLaughlin said in court.
McLaughlin also noted that had he been the prosecutor in Landry's cases all those years ago, he likely would have sought a deal that "wouldn't have had such a devastating impact on Mr. Landry's life."
Judge Anne Edwards granted a proposed order vacating the convictions after hearing from both attorneys.
That should mean Landry can come home, and Abramson told the court he was aiming to take steps toward that this week.
"It's always gratifying when justice is done," Abramson said.
Landry previously said he was advised by his attorney not to comment further on the case.
Increasing enforcement
In the years since his convictions, Landry said he's traveled back and forth to Canada many times without a problem.
“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," he told The Sentinel earlier this month.
Abramson said Thursday immigration law has changed little in the past few months. "What's changing is how it's being enforced," he said.
Enrique F. Mesa Jr., an immigration attorney based in Manchester who is not working with Landry, said Landry’s past convictionslikely 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.
Media outlets covering the issue across the country, including NPR, the New York Times and the Washington Post, found enforcement efforts against permanent residents like Landry have increased.
Now-President Donald Trump promised increased border enforcement on the campaign trail last year.
Landry told CBC he supported Trump before the election, but now feels misled.
"If I had known that he was going to do this to hundreds, if not thousands of people across America, whether they deserve it or not, like, I don't know if I would have supported that," the outlet quoted him as saying.
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.
Mesa said he's been taking more calls than normal from legal residents who are worried about international travel.
“This administration is really going to make it difficult for green card holders,” Mesa told The Sentinel last week. “... They are just being very, very conservative and very strict on who they’re letting into the country.”
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