A New Hampshire dad has reneged on his support for President Donald Trump after he was denied entry to the United States and allegedly “treated like a criminal” by border agents.
Chris Landry, 46, is a Canadian national who has lived in New Hampshire since he was a toddler. He said he has visited his home country annually without issue for decades, but things changed for the worse on Sunday.
That’s when Landry was informed at a Maine border crossing—on his way home from a family vacation with three of his 5 children—that his green card had been revoked and that he would be arrested if he tried to return home without permission.
“I was definitely all for ‘Make America Great Again’ and having a strong, unified country and a bright future for my five American children, but now I feel a little differently,” he told NBC Boston. “I’ve been torn from my family. My life has been disregarded completely.”
Landry was detained for three hours at the port of entry in Houlton, Maine, and was questioned about decades-old charges for marijuana possession and driving under a suspended license. He told NBC Boston that he was convicted of those charges in 2004 and 2007 and paid fines for both. He said that he received a suspended 60-day prison sentence for each charge and has not had any other run-ins with the law.
That did not stop border agents from treating him like a criminal, he said.
“I never expected that I wouldn’t be able to go back home,” he told WMUR. “It was scary. I felt like I was being treated like a criminal.”
Landry told the Daily Beast he was too busy for an immediate interview when reached by phone.
Landry said he blames the sudden change in his legal status—he has had a green card since 1981—even in the aftermath of his convictions, on the White House. Asked why his misdemeanor convictions had only become a problem decades later, he said, “Because of the new administration and their new policies.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, overseen by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, defended its decision to deny Landry re-entry in a statement on Thursday.
“Possessing a green card is a privilege, not a right, and under our nation’s laws, our government has the authority to revoke a green card if our laws are broken and abused,” it said. “Lawful Permanent Residents presenting at a U.S. port of entry with previous criminal convictions may be subject to mandatory detention and/or may be asked to provide additional documentation to be set up for an immigration hearing.”
A Facebook page for Landry includes dozens of photos of him fishing and wearing Boston Bruins gear. His “cover photo,” posted on Nov. 6, a day after Trump’s election win, depicts a red wave towering over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Landry’s case is similar to that of Kasper Eriksen, a father of four in Mississippi who made social media posts in support of Trump but has been hurt by his administration’s crackdown on immigrants. Eriksen has not been accused of any crime but was abruptly arrested at a naturalization interview in Tennessee. He has been in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody for months, stemming from a missed paperwork deadline over a decade old.
Landry, a manufacturing worker, says he is staying with his family in New Brunswick, Canada, until he can figure out his next steps, but he fears he will never be able to live in the U.S. with his children again. He said he hopes to plead with an immigration judge to allow him to return.
“A misdemeanor shouldn’t be a deciding factor on the rest of my life,” he told the Keene Sentinel.
