It's not business as usual for Canadians who want to stay in the U.S., lawyers warn

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer speaks to a British Columbia motorist at the Peace Arch border crossing in Blaine, Wash., across the Canada-U. S. border from Surrey, B.C., on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

VANCOUVER — Immigration lawyers say the case of a Vancouver woman detained in the United States over a denied visa is a warning to other Canadians that it’s no longer business as usual when crossing the border for work.

Jasmine Mooney returned to Vancouver this weekend after she was detained for about 12 days when she tried to cross the border near San Diego, Calif.

U.S. immigration lawyer Jim Hacking says Mooney’s case joins a growing list of stories over the past 10 days where people “with varying degrees of immigration status” — even one with a permanent-resident card — were either detained or deported in ways not seen before.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement say Mooney was held in accordance with a January executive order by President Donald Trump, and Hacking says the result is a “full-tilt assault on legal immigration.”

Vancouver-based immigration lawyer Richard Kurland says there will likely be “more of the same” over the summer, and Canadians should know that American immigration officers' duties are to frustrate, instead of facilitate, entry.

Mooney’s family says the businesswoman and former actress endured days of “inhumane” conditions, ending up in a privately run detention centre in Arizona, with 30 people held in a single cell and very limited amenities.

She was detained at the US-Mexico border on March 3 and returned to Vancouver around midnight Saturday.

Hacking says the type of visa Mooney was applying for, a so-called TN, is unique because it is one of the few that can be issued at the border instead of requiring a visit to an embassy or consulate.

The visa is part of a trade agreement with the United States that allows Canadians and Mexicans to have visas processed at the border for certain professions.

Hacking says border officers could have just denied Mooney entry and her detention sends a strong message about the current state of U.S. border control.

“In the 17 years I’ve been practising immigration law, I’ve never heard of a TN visa holder being detained for days on end and not being allowed to enter,” says Hacking, founder of Hacking Immigration Law in St. Louis, Mo.

“She was technically outside the United States at the Port of Entry trying to obtain admission, and what should have happened is they should have simply refused her.

“But the idea that they would take her into custody and detain her under what she describes as pretty harsh conditions is part of this overall plan they have to deter all immigration to the United States. They don’t want people coming to the United States.”

Hacking says he has been advising people who are not citizens to avoid leaving the United States, since he thinks there’s an increasing chance they won’t be let back in.

That includes Canadians with past or present work visas or other immigration status, he says.

“I have lots of clients from Canada,” Hacking says. “I do believe that many Canadians have taken it way too casually with their immigration status over the years.”

But he says those days are over and Canadians need to be as careful as anyone else.

Kurland says Canadians looking to enter the United States under the current geopolitical mood need to be as forthright with border agents as possible, and assumptions that some crossings are easier to enter than others should be discounted.

Mooney’s family has said she tried to enter the United States from British Columbia first, then went in from Mexico after successfully applying for entry there previously.

“It’s not unusual for the identical fact pattern on Monday to be accepted by an officer, and on Tuesday not to be accepted by an officer (at the border),” Kurland says.

Kurland also says that a visa applicant seeking to enter any country, if told by immigration officials to have their cases processed at the consulate or embassy, should do so to avoid running into issues at the border.

He notes that Trump used immigration issues in his previous administration to negotiate trade deals, and the current increase in denials to the United States may be a repeat of this strategy.

“That ball game changed, January 2025,” Kurland says. “The administration has an overwhelming political mandate to slam down hard on would-be immigration law breakers, and this is an illustration of that political mandate.”

Mooney’s family did not respond to requests for comment this weekend beyond confirming her safe arrival back in Vancouver.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 17, 2025.

Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press