If you had tickets to see John Moreland in Canada, I have some bad news for you.
The incredible Oklahoma singer-songwriter took to social media today with a long message explaining in detail why he had made the decision to cancel his upcoming dates in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Kingston.
Long story short, his wife is a Canadian immigrant with a green card and he’s a traveling, tattooed musician, and he says they have both already been mistreated by border security in the past, and given the recent crackdowns on illegal immigration from the Trump administration, he doesn’t want to take any chances of something going wrong.
Here’s his entire statement:
“My wife is my tour manager. She is also an immigrant – a legal resident, with a green card. As you may imagine, being heavily tattooed, touring musicians, one of whom is an immigrant, already gets us f***ed with by border patrol almost every time we try to cross anywhere.
Coming back in to the US is usually where we get the most unreasonable friction. In this new nightmarish reality, where green cards are suddenly meaningless, due process is apparently a thing of the past, and authorities seemingly have the power to detain, deport, and imprison people at their whim, I will not be putting my wife or myself at the mercy of any border cops or immigration agents (or any other entities of state authority, for that matter).
As a result, my upcoming Canadian shows are canceled. I hope you know how sorry I am. Thanks for understanding.”
Is it a bit over the top? Yeah, maybe… but it’s hard to blame him for not wanting to take any chances.
Of course, green card holders are deemed lawful permanent resident in the United States and should have no issues getting back into the country, providing they are not breaking the law. They can be deported or denied entry into the United States, and it’s not all that uncommon in instances where the holder has committed a crime, usually some form of fraud, drug offenses or other aggravated felonies, but only an immigration judge can deport a green card holder.
According to CNN, immigration attorney Charles Kuck, says he understands the concern, but green card holders are permitted to freely travel:
“Green card holders should be fine. Unless they’re engaging in activities that Marco Rubio would consider to be terrorism, I think they’re absolutely OK. And that’s the vast majority of people.”
High profile cases like that of suspected MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who’s led Columbia University protests, have dominated in the press, but there’s not doubt that green card holders are nervous about traveling. No, I’m not going to get into each situation, but even if you are pro-deportation, there are undeniable facts backing up a few claims that a handful of US citizens have been wrongly detained by ICE, as well as some legal residents with full documentation. It’s a complicated situation no doubt, and amid language barriers and other clerical issues, it’s clear that mistakes can happen.
John still has a bunch of US dates which are unaffected by this decision but it’s certainly a bummer that those with tickets will no longer get to see him in person.
While I’ve never gotten the chance to hear John Moreland live, he’s had a major influence on my musical tastes. His albums In The Throes (2013) and High on Tulsa Heat (2015) changed me in ways I can’t begin to understand. It was like having blurry vision but suddenly you’re given glasses. The things you once though were pretty may suddenly appear less so but the details of others that you were quite literally blind to before become your new definition of beautiful.
Yeah, that was a bit much but honestly, his level of songwriting calls for a bit of poetic waxing time and again. Hopefully artists can continue to feel safe touring outside of the US.
Here’s the forever great sad song, “You Don’t Care For Me Enough To Cry”
