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It was the late 1990s when the Canadian man crossed the border into the United States, a visitor like millions of others, free to stay up to six months.

Except that he never actually left the U.S., and never obtained U.S. government permission to stick around. He simply made a new life for himself in America.

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For the last 18 years, the Canadian has been an illegal immigrant.

“He has a business in the U.S. and it’s active and he has employees,” says Fadi Minawi, the man’s Toronto-based lawyer. “He came to me and asked: ‘How do I get legal?’”

As unlawful immigrants become a target for President Donald Trump’s administration a surprising number of Canadians could be asking the same question right now.

Think of “illegal aliens” and the stereotype that likely comes to mind is one of impoverished Latin-Americans slipping across the border into Texas or Arizona, seeking a new life in a more prosperous land.