With the current tensions between the U.S. and Canada would you holiday in the U.S?

Photo: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

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.

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."

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