Why a permanent resident of the US says she's afraid to travel back to Canada

(CNN) — A Colorado business owner called her immigration attorney in a panic this week, wrestling with a worry she never expected: If she travels abroad for a conference, could she end up getting deported?

A woman from Cameroon who lives in the Midwest made a heartbreaking decision: Flying home for her father’s funeral would be too risky.

An immigrant of Palestinian descent cancelled international travel plans — and worried that walking outside their New England home with a keffiyeh they’ve worn for years might no longer be safe.

And a Canadian tattoo artist who lives in Washington state shared her fears on social media about an upcoming trip across the border.

These four people have never met, and many details of their lives are different. But they share at least one thing in common. They are legal immigrants with green cards — documents deeming them lawful permanent residents of the United States. And they told CNN they’re still scared the Trump administration could kick them out of the country.

Immigration lawyer LaToya McBean Pompy says this growing fear is the biggest issue she sees among her clients who have green cards.

“They’ve never been afraid before,” she says, “but today, they’re afraid.”

Why some green card holders say they’re worried

About 12.8 million green card holders live in the United States, according to the latest estimates from the Office of Homeland Security Statistics.

And some of them were taken by surprise when authorities detained a former student protest leader at New York’s Columbia University earlier this month. Mahmoud Khalil, who helped lead the school’s student protest movement demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, is married to a US citizen and had a green card. He isn’t facing any criminal charges, but Trump administration officials have accused him of inciting violence and supporting terrorism – claims Khalil’s attorneys and supporters deny.

“I think the fact he happened to be a permanent resident underscored the vulnerability of all non-citizens in this country to a lot of people who hadn’t thought it through,” says David Leopold, an immigration attorney in Ohio and former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

Leopold says it’s not uncommon for green card holders to be detained and deported if they’re accused and convicted of certain crimes.

“It’s fairly routine,” he says, noting that the statute lists offenses such as document fraud, drug offenses and crimes that are deemed “aggravated felonies” in immigration law.

But the Trump administration’s attempt to deport Khalil under the portion of the statute that cites “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States” is far rarer and more troubling, Leopold says.

“Who’s next?” Leopold told reporters on a recent call with immigrant rights advocates. “Is it a climate activist? It is a gender-rights activist? Is it trans activists? Is it somebody who is concerned about health care? Is it somebody who just simply opposes Donald Trump?”

Even before Khalil’s high-profile arrest, many green card holders were wrestling with fears they weren’t expecting, McBean Pompy says.

“I think it had to do with ICE and enforcement activities that folks were seeing and posting about that were happening in their communities,” she says.

Recent comments from officials like Vice President JD Vance have sparked even more concern, she says.

“A green card holder, even if I may like that green card holder, doesn’t have an indefinite right to be in the United States of America, right?” Vance said in an interview with Fox News last week. “American citizens have different rights from people who have green cards, from people who have student visas. And so my attitude on this is, this is not fundamentally about free speech. And to me, yes, it’s about national security, but it’s also, more importantly, about – who do we as an American public decide gets to join our national community? And if the Secretary of State and the President decide, ‘This person shouldn’t be in America, and they have no legal right to stay here,’ it’s as simple as that.”

McBean Pompy, who’s based in White Plains, New York, and frequently posts her analyses of immigration issues on social media, shared a clip of Vance’s remarks with her followers, describing the vice president’s comments as “a shocking new standard.”

“When our policymakers speak about this issue in such a loose way, it makes me a little uncomfortable,” she told CNN, “because there are very strict rules governing a green card holder’s rights and abilities in the United States, and I just want to make sure that we’re following due process.”

They’re scared about upcoming travel plans

Marina Sinden, a green card holder in Washington state who’s married to a US citizen, is looking forward to visiting her family in Canada for Easter. But the 37-year-old tattoo artist says she’s not looking forward to what she fears might happen when she tries to return to her US home afterward.

“I’m really concerned about making the crossing back into the United States. … I have an entire world here to lose if I’m not allowed to re-enter,” Sinden says.

Escalating tensions between the US and Canada, plus a recent report of a Canadian woman who was detained at the border for 12 days, are weighing on her.

“I’m very concerned about going through an experience like that,” Sinden says. “I own a home here. I own a brick-and-mortar business. I have vehicles. I have children in school. And I have a daughter who says the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States flag every single day.”

Sinden says she worries a clerical error in her file from a past green card application could cause confusion, even though she resolved that problem in court, her current green card is valid and she has no criminal record.

“I’m concerned that no matter what I’ve done to do the right things (and) respect the rules… I could have my entire life taken from me for a clerical issue … where something was misfiled one time incorrectly,” she says.

The stress is something that’s difficult for those who haven’t dealt directly with the US immigration system to understand, says Maria, a 38-year-old business owner in Colorado. She asked to be identified only by her first name out of concern that speaking out could jeopardize her legal status in the US.

Maria told CNN she came to the US from Costa Rica when she was 5 years old. She has a green card now, but as a child she was undocumented for years after her family overstayed their visas.

“I remember feeling like we couldn’t go to the doctor, we couldn’t go do anything, because the fear of deportation was so real,” she says. “It’s terrible, and now, oh my God, all my childhood traumas and fears are being reignited and lived again — something I never thought I’d have to deal with ever again.”

This week, as she prepared to put down a deposit to attend an important work conference abroad, Maria called her lawyer. Even with the green card she’s had for years, the situation feels increasingly uncertain, she says.

“He told me, ‘It’s fine, you’re OK, you can go,’” she says. “But am I still scared? Yes.”

What immigration attorneys are telling clients about travel

For immigration attorney Charles Kuck, it’s a telling sign of the times. The last time he received so many calls from concerned legal residents, he says, was after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

In recent weeks, Kuck says he’s been fielding numerous calls from clients with green cards — and working to reassure them.

“Green card holders should be fine,” Kuck says. “Unless they’re engaging in activities that (Secretary of State) Marco Rubio would consider to be terrorism, I think they’re absolutely OK. And that’s the vast majority of people.”

Green card holders largely have the same rights as US citizens, he says, “unless — and there’s always an unless — they’ve committed a crime. If they’ve committed a crime, then they do not have the right to re-enter the United States without being subject to being questioned and maybe put into deportation proceedings.”

They also don’t have the right to live indefinitely outside the country, he says.

McBean Pompy says she advises green card holders not to stay outside the US longer than six months. If they do, she says, it’s possible for the US government “to allege that they have abandoned their residency.” Also, green card holders who are in removal proceedings shouldn’t travel, she says. And she advises clients not to sign any documents at the airport, especially if they don’t understand them.

Leopold says the advice he’s giving to clients varies depending on their circumstances. He’s advised many visa holders to hold off on travel, particularly given the possibility that new travel bans are coming soon from the Trump administration.

“If I were not a citizen, I would think long and hard before I traveled. And that includes green card holders. It’s less of a risk, obviously, for a green card holder to travel, because you do have more rights with the green card, and it’s much harder to keep a green card holder out of the country,” he says. “But anybody who’s got blemishes on their record, a conviction, even misdemeanor convictions, they should not travel unless they’ve talked to counsel.”

To some, even staying in the US doesn’t feel safe

Deciding it wasn’t safe to leave the US and attend her father’s funeral in Cameroon a few weeks ago was heartbreaking, a 40-year-old green card holder in the Midwest told CNN this week.

On top of her grief, watching recent news and social media posts on her phone has left her feeling devastated and uncertain about her life as an immigrant in this country, she said.

“When I got my green card, I thought everything was going to be OK for me. … Lately, with all that’s been going on, I don’t even know,” the woman said. She asked to be identified only by her first initial, L, because she came to the US seeking asylum and is worried speaking out could endanger her family.

“When we see what is happening, the number of people that are being deported, it’s really scary for us,” L said.

After Khalil’s recent arrest, a green card holder of Palestinian descent told CNN they’re feeling worried about walking outside their New England home wearing a keffiyeh — let alone traveling internationally. They asked to be identified by the initial K out of fear that speaking out could jeopardize their immigration case.

“I can’t even be guaranteed that in my home an agent won’t come in and forcibly remove me because the President or the Secretary of State deems someone a threat … It’s really hard to feel safe when that’s what we’re being told,” K said, adding that reports of other arrests and deportations have only intensified fears.

“And I think the intent was fear,” K said. “That was very much intentional — to have people afraid to speak out, to have people afraid to exercise the freedoms that are rightfully theirs to take part in.”

‘You will see a lot more people applying for citizenship’

In addition to questions about whether they can safely travel and whether their green cards can be taken away, immigration attorneys say these days they’re also getting more questions from green card holders about becoming US citizens.

“I think you will see a lot more people applying for citizenship than might normally have applied,” Kuck says.

Officials estimate that more than two-thirds of the almost 13 million green card holders in the US are eligible to become citizens.

But despite their eligibility, some of her clients are more hesitant now to pursue citizenship, McBean Pompy says.

“They’re making a decision — ‘OK, I’m going to wait and see how things shake out with this administration before I really try to move forward with it,’ because they don’t want to be caught up in any of the major changes,” she says.

Maria, the Colorado business owner, says now it feels like becoming a citizen is the only way to keep her family safe and make sure her 12-year-old son doesn’t have to deal with the same worries she faced as a child. Soon she’s planning to begin the paperwork.

“I don’t want to be separated from my family,” she says.

Sinden says she sees things differently. She considered becoming a US citizen before. And she’ll be eligible to apply this month. But escalating tensions with her home country, she says, have made her feel so unwelcome in the US that becoming a citizen now feels like a step too far.

“I don’t believe in the current policies and the aggression towards my country. I don’t know how far that’s going to go,” she says.

So instead of taking steps toward US citizenship, Sinden is opting for something even more permanent than a green card.

She recently tattooed a Canadian maple leaf on the palm of her hand.

CNN’s Jennifer Hauser contributed to this report.

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