One-third of Palm Springs’s travel and tourism industry relies on Canadian visitors.. Many more wealthy Canadians own second homes in this desert city and love to stay there for the winter. They arrive by plane, and many take a long drive to escape the brutal Canadian winter.
The Canadian community is strong in Palm Springs, and Canadians get along excellently with locals and other visitors. They are also spending serious money benefiting the desert community.
The 40 bright red flags lining the city’s main street are easily noticeable. Displayed outside various establishments such as hotels, restaurants, bars, and art galleries, each banner showcases a heart-shaped Canadian flag welcoming America’s neighbor to the north, while Canada has warned its citizens to travel to the U.S.
However, Canadians still arrive. Locals call them “Snowbirds” because they came to escape the ice and snow at home.
More and more Snowbirds vacationing in the United States say, “We’re leaving.” Sorry!
A mass exodus would spell big trouble for Palm Springs. In 2017, Canadians spent 1/4 of a Billion Dollars every year in this town and stayed more than twice as long as other visitors.
We hunt you down and arrest you.
While U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem is spending millions on an advertising campaign in Mexico telling their citizens, “We hunt you down and arrest you,” California Governor Newsom is spending California money to advertise in Canada, welcoming Canadians to the State and saying California is far away from Washington, DC.
ICE is targeting parking lots to target Canadian cars
ICE, the federally funded Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency field office in Palm Springs, simultaneously sends its agents to the parking lots of supermarkets to locate Canadian citizens.
A known former Canadian TV anchor who owns a home in Palm Springs invited her Canadian neighbor on Tuesday for happy hours.
She told eTurboNews about her friend who also lives in The Lakes in Palm Springs, an upscale residential neighborhood. Many of her friends come from Alberta and spend half the year here every year in a home she owns.
Her friend went to shop at Trader Joe’s supermarket in Palm Desert, and when she got back to her car, ICE officers surrounded her vehicle. She was parked in a private lot belonging to the store. These federal agents demanded to see her papers.
Take your papers, Canadians!
The papers that Trump introduced a few weeks ago require Canadians and other foreigners, or as the official term, “aliens,” who stay longer than 30 days, to register with immigration.
The ICE officer in charge of looking for Canadians at the Trader Joe’s parking lot raid told this woman in her late 50s that she would have to stay at her car until she had papers, or she would be put in handcuffs, arrested, and brought to immigration jail.
The Canadian lady’s blood pressure and fear went through the roof, but she managed to make a panicked call to her husband. Her husband rushed home, went online, organized the required paperwork, and, an hour later, headed over to Trader Joe’s. The officer checked the papers and let her wife go without saying anything.
eTN was told that ICE is now routinely stopping snowbirds from Canada. One-third of the Snowbirds in Palm Springs are visiting from Alberta and British Columbia. “I think what set it off was her Alberta license plate,” her friend told eTN.
“They are stopping people who drive here and stay more than 30 days. You must have this paperwork if you’ll be here more than 30 days. People who fly in automatically have it. Some people also ship their cars.”
It becomes insane
“Can you imagine this normal middle-aged Canadian woman from Alberta going through this? It’s become insane, and it certainly is no wonder. People are staying away when something like this happens.”
U.S. Law enforcement needs a lot of training
Dr. Peter Tarlow, president of the Dallas-based World Tourism Network, a renowned tourism safety and security expert, and chaplain of his city’s police department, told eTurboNews.
” This officer in Palm Springs needs a lot of training!” Tarlow understood this requirement for foreign visitors staying longer than 30 days. He said,” Instead of threatening her with arrest, he should have given the lady a day or two to produce the papers and email or upload them to the government website.”
Make ICE great again.
Dr. Tarlow has trained hundreds of police officers on tourism and cultural sensitivities and offered to approach federal authorities to launch an initiative to make customs and border control and enforcement officers more friendly.
ICE – Stasi?
German World Tourism Network member Holger Timmreck, who escaped from East Germany in the 70 and is now lecturing in Universities around South America about the danger of communism and dictatorial regimes, said this case reminds him of the East German secret police (STASI). The Stasi was the secret police agency of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). The Stasi was one of the most hated and feared institutions of the East German communist government.
It’s scary that ICE is allowed to harass people inside the United States without a warrant. There are already daily reports about overactive officers not only going after criminal, rapists, and gang members, but legitimate and law abiding visitors, and even U.S. citizens.
Are Palm Springs Tourism officials scared to talk?
eTN contacted the Palm Springs and the Greater Palm Springs Visitors Bureau, the Palm Springs Mayor’s Office, and the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, but calls were not returned.
