New U.S. travel policy didn’t factor in revenue from Canadian snowbirds: lawsuit

A new lawsuit claims that the Trump administration’s travel policy requiring foreign nationals to register to stay in the U.S. for 30 days or more didn’t consider the impact it could have on communities that rely on revenue from Canadian snowbirds.

A complaint was filed on March 31 in Washington, D.C. by advocacy group and nonprofit organization the American Immigration Council, along with other organizations, against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), DHS secretary Kristi Noem, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), and USCIS director Kika Scott.

Among other issues, the complaint says that the interim final rule “fails to consider the impact of the new universal registration scheme on communities that rely on the revenue from the Canadian retirees who travel to the United States every winter and who will now be at risk of federal prosecution if they fail to register via the new process or fail to carry registration documents with them at all times.”

An interim final rule is one that is “issued without first issuing a notice of proposed rule-making and accepting public comments and sets out new regulatory requirements and their effective date,” according to Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School.

There are reportedly an estimated one million Canadian snowbirds, or retirees, who flock to warmer destinations in the U.S. over the winter. According to the U.S. Travel Association, Canada is the “top source of international visitors to the United States,” generating US$20.5 billion in spending in 2024. Even a 10 per cent reduction in Canadian travel could mean “2 million fewer visits” and “US$2.1 billion in lost spending.”

This year, there have been a significantly fewer travellers crossing into the United States via its northern land border. According to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in February 2024, there were 2.7 million passenger vehicles that passed through compared to this February, when there were 2.2. million.

The complaint continues: “In fact, Canada recently issued a travel advisory to its citizens warning of the forthcoming registration requirements.”

The updated travel advisory page from the Canadian federal government for travel to the U.S. includes links to the new registration form and to the CBP website, for travellers looking to verify the issuance of a I-94 form.

The I-94 is a form that is automatically generated, in most cases, for Canadian travellers who arrive in the U.S. by air. However, Canadians who cross at a land border may not receive the I-94 form, per Snowbird Advisor. Foreign nationals with an I-94 form are considered already registered.

The complaint challenges the interim final rule allowing DHS and USCIS to impose the new travel policy, called the Alien Registration Requirement, announced in late February.

The policy puts into practice an executive order from President Donald Trump, entitled Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The registration requirement says it is mandatory for illegal aliens, including Canadians, to register to stay in the U.S. for 30 days or longer. Part of the registration includes filling out an online form and getting fingerprinted. Canadians were later exempt from having to be fingerprinted.

The policy means that foreign nationals must keep their proof of registration “in their personal possession at all times,” per USCIS.

The policy is set to go into effect on April 11.

Per the complaint, the new travel policy “reverses the government’s long-standing approach to registration — a limited registration policy that has been in place since the end of World War II — in a manner that will cause confusion, fear, and significant economic disruption.”

The complaint maintains that the defendants attempted to “rush through these sweeping changes without any meaningful explanation for the change in policy and without the notice, public comment, and careful consideration that Congress requires to avoid exactly these types of harms.”

In particular, the complaint mentions how Canadians visiting the United States for less than six months have been historically exempt from such registration requirements.

The complaint also brings up the fact that Canadians are “permitted to enter the United States as nonimmigrants for business or pleasure without obtaining a visa and are generally not issued a Form I-94 if they arrive by land.” It says that the rule does not explain why such visitors “must now also register if they stay more than 30 days, even though they have physically presented themselves for inspection at a port of entry and been screened by a CBP officer.”

The Canadian Snowbird Association, which has 100,000 members, said in a news release that they are actively working “with members of Congress and the Trump administration to rescind this requirement for Canadian citizens.”

“It is our position that this executive order relates to unlawfully present individuals currently in the United States and should not apply to Canadian tourists visiting the U.S. for vacation purposes,” per the release.

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