Man remains stuck in Canada after he was denied entry back into the US

By Arielle Mitropoulos

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    PETERBOROUGH, New Hampshire (WMUR) — A Peterborough resident remains stuck in Canada after he said that he was denied entry back into the U.S. earlier this month.

Last week, WMUR-TV reported first that Christopher Landry, a legal U.S. resident who is a Canadian national, said he was denied entry at the border in Maine over the weekend. He said he was held for three hours with two of his five children and turned back to Canada over old misdemeanor offenses tied to marijuana and a suspended license from 2004 and 2007.

“It definitely has made a tremendous mountain out of a molehill,” Landry told CTV in Canada. “I was absolutely shocked. I crossed the same port of entry since 2007, with no, no, issues at all.”

Landry told CTV he is very concerned for his family’s well-being at home.

“It’s terrible. It’s, you know, everything in my life is essentially put on hold. But my primary concern right now is, you know, how is my family going to survive at home without me,” he said.

Landry is not the first New Hampshire resident to be denied entry into the U.S. Earlier this Spring, Nashua resident and German National Fabian Schmidt was taken into custody at Logan Airport in Boston. He was eventually released in May, after 60 days in an ice detention facility in Rhode Island.

Landry told CTV that he is determined to make it home to his family.

“I’m just, I’m hopeful that, you know, we can get this cleaned up and I can go home and resume my life. My quiet life, you know, just going to work and raising my kids and trying to provide a good future for them,” Landry said.

Customs and Border Patrol released a statement saying that green card holders who faced charges previously could be detained at the border.

“Landry had criminal convictions for drug possession that violated his green card status,” the agency said in the statement. “He and his children returned to Canada after being given the opportunity to obtain his court documents to reapply for admission into the country. 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. 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.”

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