Trump will complicate the lives of the “snowbirds”

Without the adequate papers in their possession, long term visitors would even then be liable to criminal charges.

After Canadian businesses, Donald Trump is now targeting the snowbirds – a term particularly used to refer to Canadians who spend the winter in the warmer states of the United States.

However, Canadian tourists are important to the American economy. According to the U.S. Travel Association, Canadians spent 20 billion dollars with their neighbors to the south, including 6.5 billion dollars just in the state of Florida.

According to the same agency, with two million fewer Canadian tourists in Florida, 14,000 people could risk losing their jobs.

This new measure seems to be in line with the desire to combat the phenomenon of undocumented immigration in the United States.

Signed on January 20, this decree, titled «Protect the American People Against Invasion», has gone under the radar. In addition to registering with the American Department of Immigration and Citizenship, visitors will also be subject to fingerprinting, unless granted an exemption.

Canadians arriving by air are already registered in the Department of Homeland Security’s electronic system, which generates the I-94 form to record the entries and exits of visitors, according to the U.S. government website.

However, when entering by land, it is possible that the border authorities do not issue this I-94 form. In this case, the visitor is not registered.