A Canadian woman travelling on a Canadian passport says she was turned away at the U.S. border and told she needed a valid immigrant visa to enter the country.
Manpreet Kooner, 30, is a Canadian citizen who was born to Indian parents in Canada and raised here. She now lives in Montreal's LaSalle borough.
She told CBC she was on her way from Montreal to a spa in Vermont for a day trip with two friends, who are both white, Sunday afternoon. They never made it.
Kooner said she was held at the border for six hours before being turned away.
At one point, she said, a border agent told her: "'I know you may feel like you've been Trumped,'" an apparent reference to U.S. President Donald Trump.
Trump's January executive order barring citizens from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the country was later blocked in U.S. courts, but has touched off legal battles and confusion around the world.
Kooner was told to apply for the visa at the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa. She went to the embassy Monday morning but was told they couldn't help her, and that she would need to talk to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
"I'm speechless," she said. "There are no answers."
U.S. Customs and Border Protection could not immediately be reached for comment.
Kooner's story is the latest in a string of recent tales involving Canadian travellers scrutinized or turned away by U.S. border agents.
Last month, for instance, a woman from the Montreal suburb of Brossard said she was denied entry after being fingerprinted, photographed and questioned in detail about her religion and her views on Trump.
Kooner was reluctant to attribute her situation to racism, but said friends who have reached out to her say that could be the case.
"People have said we need to take that into account here, because unfortunately, yeah, my skin colour is brown," she said.
Told she needed an immigrant visa
Kooner said this summer, her mother was turned away at the border as well, but wasn't told why. Kooner said she was told her mother's issues wouldn't impact her.
She first had trouble getting into the U.S. last December. She was with friends and her fiancΓ© when her car was pulled over for what she was told was a random check, she said.
She was made to fill out a number of forms, but was eventually told there was a problem with the computer system and they should return the next morning.
When they went back, she was let through without any problems.