Updated April 17.
An Island family, stranded in Canada for the past six weeks due to a denied visa renewal following a family ski trip, has been forced to seek documentation in order to try to return home.
The family’s status continues to remain uncertain after federal border officials rejected Michael Freeze’s work visa renewal application.
But for the past six weeks, the Freeze family has had to stay at the house of one of Michael’s friend’s parents while they’re away. Michael said that not knowing when his family can return to the Island has been scary. “Everything is just time and time, and the hardest part is that we don’t know when this time is going to end,” he said.
Michael and his wife, Cinthya Freeze, first moved to the Island four years ago after Michael began working as a construction consultant for Rosbeck Builders Corp. in Edgartown. Originally from Alberta, Canada, Michael, 32, and Cinthya, 34, live in Oak Bluffs with their three children, Noah, 9, Olivia, 7, and Luca, 3.
To work in the U.S., Michael holds a TN visa, which allows Canadian and Mexican citizens to work in certain professions in the U.S. under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. For a recipient to remain in the U.S., the visa must be renewed every three years.
The Freezes decided to go on a weekend ski trip in Quebec during their children’s school break in February while they renewed Michael’s visa. The family, who had successfully made the renewal trip in the past, were also reassured by their lawyer that it’d be fine.
However, the family was denied re-entry into the U.S. on March 2 due to Michael’s job description as a construction consultant on his application. Cinthya said that a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent advised Michael to use a different label, like engineer or architect.
“The officer was really kind, and he was really helpful and empathetic about our whole situation,” she said.
The next day, the family went to an Ontario border crossing, and was denied entry a second time. Michael recalled the shock his family felt. “We didn’t even know where we were driving at first,” he said. “We just parked in a parking lot.”
The approval and renewal of TN visas is largely left to the discretion of border officials. Michael said that it seems that officers are stricter with issuing eligibility under the Trump administration.
“There’s not anything specific with this administration that stopped us from getting the visa, but it does seem that the officers are having a little bit less leeway,” he said.
A spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security wrote to The Times that on March 2, the Freeze family was “denied entry into the U.S. because they have no legal status or proper documentation to enter.”
Officials from U.S. Customs and Border Protection didn’t provide a comment to The Times by print deadline, despite initially agreeing to do so.
Crackdowns on immigration, particularly against undocumented immigrants, have risen dramatically under the Trump administration. The most visible local example occurred when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agents swept the Island and detained 20 individuals in May 2025. But the Trump administration has also targeted those with legal immigration status across the country, from student visa holders to refugees.
In a statement, Rep. Bill Keating’s office, whose district includes the Vineyard, said that they “have not heard from the Freeze family, but the congressman and his staff stand ready to assist them in any way possible.”
To renew his visa, Michael is looking for a new job on the Island that has TN visa eligibility.
Despite the challenges, Cinthya emphasized that her family is determined to return home to the Island. The Freezes are active members in the Vineyard branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), and the Freeze children attend Oak Bluffs School.
Michael said that the Island was the right fit for his family.
“We fell in love immediately not just with the Island but with the community,” he said. “It has that small-town feel because everybody that’s here sticks up for each other.”
Cinthya said that she and Michael are trying to remain optimistic for their children, whose classmates and teachers at Oak Bluffs School have been frequently checking in on them. “We try to keep positive for the kids, and we’re really hopeful,” she said. “It’s really tough, and we’re taking it one day at a time.”
To alleviate the burden of the family’s expenses, such as groceries and their rental home on the Island, fellow LDS Church member Melanie Bilodeau set up a GoFundMe campaign. So far, the fundraiser has raised about $13,000 of its $24,000 goal.
Bilodeau described the Freeze family as “scrupulously honest.”
“They’re into living by the laws of the land, which is part of their faith,” she said. “They’ve been stopped in their progress.”
Bilodeau feels thankful for the donations: “It’s so lovely. I go on every day and just admire the number,” she said “I’m so grateful to the people of Martha’s Vineyard.”
Cinthya feels appreciative for the community’s contributions and care of their home in their absence. “We feel so grateful for the support that we’ve been getting. It seriously has been carrying us, and has given us the strength to keep going,” she said.
Although they’ve lived on the Vineyard for only a few years, Cinthya emphasized that the Island is the place their family belongs.
“We feel like our heart is on the Island, and that’s where we need to raise our family,” she said. “That’s why we’re fighting so hard to get back.”
Editor’s note: Due to an editing error, a previous version of this story stated the ICE operation on the Island occurred in March.
This is the kind of story that reminds people how brutal bureaucracy can be when it collides with real life. Whatever one thinks about immigration policy in the abstract, this is not an abstraction. This is a family with children in the Oak Bluffs School, a home on the Island, and roots in the community, stranded for weeks over paperwork, labels, and official discretion.
What stands out the most to me is how arbitrary it sounds. A man doing the same work, with a visa category used before, is suddenly on the wrong side of a job title. That is not a system that inspires confidence. It is a system showing how fragile “legal status” can become when common sense disappears.
The Vineyard likes to talk about community. Here is a chance to prove it means something.
This story, as told here, reeks of entitlement. Not only do they feel entitled to live here, stay here, and use our public schools to educate their children, but they also believe they are entitled to leave the country while their papers are in limbo and expect, with certainty, that they will be able to return.
Furthermore, let this case put to rest the assertion that this only happens to brown people or non-Christians.
I am also grateful that the author included the name of the employer, Rosbeck Builders Corp. The idea that Rosbeck could not find an American citizen for this position is beyond comprehension. This is the part of our immigration system that is broken and needs to be emphasized in this story.
I see no reason why this family should return here rather than be replaced by an eligible American candidate, preferably an Islander with roots here.