Quique Escamilla said he’s been feeling more uneasy every time he crossed the border to perform in the U.S. over the past year.
The Juno-award winning musician, who is based in Toronto but still carries his Mexican passport, said his worries began when Donald Trump returned to the White House with promises to crack down on the border.
But Escamilla said he initially decided to keep playing the U.S. dates he had booked months before.
He said several moments subsequently gave him pause, like when he first saw Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on city streets at a July tour stop, or when the U.S. Supreme Court voted in September to effectively allow ICE to racially profile people.
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Still, he continued to play American venues, though Escamilla said he began to make special arrangements at home before he crossed the border in case he wasn’t heard from for weeks.
Last month, after ICE agents shot and killed two American citizens in Minneapolis, Escamilla said he no longer felt it was safe for him and his band to play in America.
“If I was stopped, or ran into ICE agents right now, I don’t think my documents would matter. At the end of the day, the person is going to judge you by your skin colour,” he told CBC Radio’s Metro Morning Thursday.
“Literally no one in the United States can guarantee my safety while I travel with my Mexican passport.”
In a social media post on Jan. 21, he announced he was cancelling his remaining U.S. dates, and would not return to the country “until there is systemic lawfulness, accountability, and change.”
Playing stateside is something several musicians are reconsidering, according to people in Canada’s music industry. And many artists have already decided to stop.
Two trans artists cancelled U.S. tour dates last spring following U.S. visa policies that discriminate against trans people.
B.C rocker Matthew Good cancelled his entire American tour last year in protest of the Trump administration’s policies, and legendary songwriter Neil Young even said he was concerned about coming back through American customs after speaking out against Trump on his 2025 European tour.
Recently, the Rural Alberta Advantage, a Toronto group currently touring the U.S., announced on social media that it would cancel its Feb. 13 show in Minneapolis due to safety concerns.
Some Canadian musicians halt U.S. tours over border fears, political climate
Other artists are quietly avoiding the states, according to industry reps.
The Folk Alliance International music conference in New Orleans last month, which Escamilla dropped out of, reportedly had a much smaller Canadian contingent than usual, according to Allistair Elliott, Canadian vice president for the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada.
Uncertainty over what musicians will encounter at the border or while working in the U.S. has only grown over the past year, said Andrew Cash, president and CEO of the Canadian Independent Music Association.
The association pulled out of last year’s South by Southwest festival amid rising tensions between the U.S. and Canada. Cash says the group also met with immigration consultants and lawyers early last year to discuss touring in the U.S.
“Then the message really was, if your paperwork is in order and you have everything buttoned down, you should have no problem at the border. And largely I think that’s [still] true, but we can’t unsee what we’re seeing down there right now,” Cash said.
Toronto-based music publicist Eric Alper said he’s spoken with about three-dozen clients since last January who have had reservations about touring the U.S., both out of concerns for their safety and their conscience.
Many of them have quietly decided to stop booking U.S. dates while the current government is in office, he said. But that can be a costly decision for smaller artists, whether they’re trying to make it big or simply make a living.
“For Canadian musicians, touring the American market is just huge financially and for their career exposure,” he said. “Going back to the 1950s, Canadian artists weren’t deemed a success until they broke [into] America.”
That attitude may need to change, given the current political climate, Alper said.
Escamilla said cancelling his U.S. dates cuts him off from his Spanish-speaking audience, which is much larger down south than in Canada. It’s also easier to tour between U.S. cities, he said, because the population is less spread out.
On top of that, he said he lost thousands of dollars on cancelled flights, hotels, contracts and his performing visa.
“I would rather lose money than lose my freedom, my voice or my life,” he said in his post announcing the cancelled tour.
