A former Centennial resident who has lived in the U.S. for the past 30 years was refused entry to that
country when he tried to return a year ago.
By Kathryn Stocks
Meet David. He is here in Centennial living the nightmare of the U.S. administration’s policy to crack down hard on unwanted residents. David had lived here from the age of 15 and he attended Mowat Collegiate. At the age of 28, he moved to the U.S. and built a life there.
Over the past 30 years he has lived in South Carolina, Georgia, Texas, and most recently in Sarasota, Florida, with his partner. His two grown daughters live in Georgia. Now at the age of 60, he is trapped in Canada and unable to return to his home, family and job as the manager of a soccer club.
It all changed for David in May 2025 when he came back for a week to renew his Canadian passport and visit his parents who still live in Centennial. He had come for a visit in May 2024 as well and he had returned easily to the U.S. that time. “Last year was a whole different story,” he said. “When Trump came back, everything changed.”
After his visit a year ago, his father dropped him off at the airport to catch his flight back to the U.S. David noticed there was a different system at the airport this time and he had to be fingerprinted. His name was called and he was taken to a back room that was jam-packed with a few hundred other worried people.
The U.S. border officials who interrogated David didn’t believe his story and one interviewer slammed his hand on the desk and demanded that he tell the truth. David said he was treated “like a frigging terrorist.”
That was when he found out that his green card, which allowed him to work in the U.S., had expired. They told him he would be banned from entering America for life. “I was dumbfounded,” he said. “I couldn’t think. I was in shock.” As someone who has paid taxes there, has social security, and had plenty of background checks because he works with kids as a soccer coach, he couldn’t understand what was happening. No one had asked him for his green card the last time he was here so he hadn’t worried about it.
David recently found out that it will take him at least three years to get back into the U.S., and he has hired an immigration lawyer in Buffalo to help him sort it out. Meanwhile, he has been living with his parents for the past year, hasn’t been able to see his girlfriend or daughters the whole time, he can’t find a full-time job here, and he can only get a G2 driver’s licence.
It’s hard to imagine having your life upended so abruptly for no good reason. His partner in Florida had to sell their condo because she couldn’t afford the payments for it on her own, and he doesn’t have the money to bring her or his daughters to Canada for a visit.
But David’s trying hard to stay positive and one thing he is grateful for is the support of his parents. “God bless my parents,” he said. “If not for them, I would have been living on the street.”
David has found part-time jobs at a pickleball place and a soccer club in Oshawa, but he said it’s nothing like the money he made in America. As he ponders his future, he is no longer sure he even wants to go back. “My whole life has changed,” he said. “One guy dictated my whole life!”
We have not included David’s last name in this story because we don’t want to jeopardize his chances of returning to the U.S.