A blanket of darkness has swept over green card holders and their lives in the United States amid the Donald Trump administration’s enhanced immigration crackdown. Yet another man belonging to the group fell victim to the grand scheme over the Fourth of July weekend.
Chris Landry, a green card-holding Canadian national, who is now a father, has been living in New Hampshire since he was a baby himself since 1981. On Sunday, immigration officials barred him from re-entering the US at the Canadian border. The Daily Beast suggested that his green card had possibly even been revoked.
As both immigrants living in the US – both illegally and in some cases legally – continue to be under the scanner, with detention and deportation fears hanging over their heads, the Customs and Border Protection released a fresh warning this week. Directly addressing green card holders, officials issued words of caution, saying the Trump government has the authority to revoke the permanent resident card if “laws are broken and abused.”
The CBP further reiterated, “Possessing a green card is a privilege, not a right,” the officials added that even lawful permanent residents arriving at a US port of entry with previous criminal convictions may be detained before removal proceedings.
Attention Green Card Holders: Having a criminal history does not make you an upstanding lawful permanent resident. Possessing a green card is a privilege, not a right. Under our nation’s laws, our government has the authority to revoke your green card if our laws are broken and…
As per 46-year-old Chris Landry’s account, he visits Canada every year and he has never faced such a setback before while going back to the US. “I’m a legal resident, green-card holder, I have been since 1981,” he told NBC 10 Boston.
The father of five ran into immigration officials in Houlton, Maine, who them detained him for about five hours. Landry described the “nightmare” experience, saying he felt he “was being treated like a criminal,” according to local outlet WMUR.
The New Hampshire resident, though can’t vote due to his Canadian citizenship, has been a staunch supporter of US President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement. Noting how his thoughts on the US being a “strong, unified country” harbouring his American children had changed, he added, ” I’ve been torn from my family. My life has been disregarded completely.”
Given how the CBP has already warned green card holders that prior criminal convictions may result in the situation Landry is now facing, the US permanent resident has had two previous brushes with law enforcement.
He does not have a criminal records. However, he was marked with a marijuana possession charge in 2004 and driving on a suspended license in 2007. Landry claims to have gotten a suspended 60-day sentence for each charge and paid his fines for them. “A misdemeanor shouldn’t be a deciding factor on the rest of my life,” he told Keene Sentinel.
Back in May, the US Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) wrote on X: “Green cards and visas will be revoked if an alien breaks the law, supports terrorism, overstays their permitted visit time, performs illegal work, or anything else that violates the terms on which we granted them this privilege or compromises the safety of our fellow Americans.”
Social media platform X is opposing the Indian government’s emergency blocking orders, stating that they have enough legal authority under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. The government issued 62 orders in April and May 2024, affecting 12,000 URLs and 10,500 accounts.
