The United States will begin enforcing a law requiring Canadians visiting the country for 30 days or more to register with the authorities, according to two Canadian officials who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak on the record.
The new requirement is rooted in existing immigration law, which states that foreign nationals 14 or older and not already registered with American authorities have to register and be fingerprinted if they plan to be in the United States for 30 days or longer. But in practice, the rule has not been applied consistently to Canadian nationals crossing into the United States via land borders.
On the first day of his current term, President Trump signaled that practice would change, with an executive order requiring all previously unregistered foreign nationals comply with the law. The order also warned that failure to comply would be “treated as a civil and criminal enforcement priority.”
The Canadian officials said the notice had been received by the Canadian authorities. The notice was reported earlier by ABC News.
Representatives of the Homeland Security Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A subsequent publication from U.S.C.I.S. stated that the Department of Homeland Security would explain how foreign nationals who had not already fulfilled the registration requirement would be able to go about doing so.
The notification is the Trump administration’s latest move in an escalating confrontation with Canada that has been punctuated with successive tariffs and Mr. Trump’s renewed comments about annexing the United States’ neighbor to the north and making it the 51st state.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration imposed a 25 percent tariff on most Canadian imports and then paused it for some goods. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump announced that tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum would double, after the Canadian province of Ontario retaliated to the initial round of tariffs with additional charges on electricity exports to the United States.
Late last month, the Trump administration announced that the executive order on the registration of foreign nationals would also apply to undocumented immigrants ages 14 and older, and that those who did not register and submit to fingerprinting risked criminal prosecution.
The Homeland Security Department stated at the time that green card holders, those already in deportation proceedings and people who entered the country with visas would be exempt from the registration requirement.
