Toronto Says No More Student Trips to US During Travel Ban

The city of Toronto says it will not approve student or staff trips to the United States while a travel ban ordered by President Trump is pending.

The travel ban was ordered on January 27 and revised March 6 by Trump on travelers from seven, now six Muslim-majority nations. The ban was suspended in federal court until March 29.

"No student or staff trips to the U.S. will be booked until further notice," declared the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) Friday in a statement.



School trips already approved to the U.S. may continue, the board said, including 24 trips involving 800 students, such as 100 attending the DECA competition April 26-29 in Anaheim, California. DECA hosts student competitions in entrepreneurship, hospitality, marketing, finance and management to prepare for careers.

The Toronto School District is Canada's largest school district, serving around 246,000 students across its 600 schools throughout Toronto. Toronto is a one of Canada's largest areas for immigrant communities.



The TDSB said it did not feel that all students would easily travel to the United States even with the proper immigration paperwork. Canadian student citizens who were born outside Canada might be barred from entry and left behind at the border.

Girl Guides of Canada, an equivalent to Girl Scouts of the United States, also released a statement that bars travel to the United States. They cited their organization's dedication to their values, specifically inclusiveness.

Earlier in March, Canadian nurses coming to the U.S. were turned away at the Windsor-Detroit border. Many "advanced practice nurses and nurse anesthetists no longer qualify for the working visas because of policy changes under U.S. President Donald Trump," Canadian Broadcasting Company reported.

Canadian nurses work in the U.S. under non-immigrant North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) professional (TN) visas. NAFTA professional visas allow citizens of Canada and Mexico to work in the United States in prearranged business activities for U.S. or foreign employers when there is a lack of similarly skilled U.S. workers.

"There's a huge demand for them in the Metro Detroit region, and there just aren't enough people coming out of school to fill those positions," said Marc Topoleski, immigration lawyer for the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, to CBC.

Until 2009, travel between the U.S. and Canada did not require a passport.

Corrected: An earlier version misstated the correct year when a passport was required to cross between Canada and the U.S.

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