Montrealer Daniel Lemay has been selling Christmas trees on the streets of Manhattan for the past nine years, cultivating a regular clientele in the process. However, the U.S. kept him out this year on the grounds that he's taking jobs away from Americans.

From The Globe and Mail: (Note: The NYT had the story on Dec. 16)

Mr. Lemay's annual business trip has always begun in November, when he leaves his downtown condo, helps to harvest his tree crop in Quebec's Eastern Townships, then drives to Manhattan where he and an assistant build – and live in – a tiny but elaborate duplex complete with coloured lights, Plexiglas windows, shingles, sapling columns and even French doors.

2004 NYT photo - 'Two Christmas tree sellers are living in a duplex hut in the East Village built with scavenged materials and scaffolding bought for $50. 'It's a luxury suite in contrast to the abodes of his competitors, many of them French Canadians who travel to New York each Christmas season to sell trees – usually for U.S. employers – and sleep in makeshift tents or trucks. As a result, Mr. Lemay has gained a bit of a reputation.

“He's like an elf. He's even got that gleam in his eye,” said Rev. Frank Morales, associate pastor of St. Mark's Church in the Bowery on Second Avenue between 10th and 11th streets.

The church gets about $3,000 in rent from Lemay.

Here's the story of what happened after the first time U.S. border officials turned him away.

... He returned the next day carrying a 2004 New York Times article about his charisma, his distinctive hut, and the dose of holiday cheer he brings annually to his plot on Second Avenue. In his truck were a handful of Christmas trees (his full load of about 1,000 trees was to be shipped days later).

“Then things got nasty,” Mr. Lemay said. Over the next few hours, Mr. Lemay says, he was photographed, fingerprinted and grilled on everything from the North American free-trade agreement to the religious significance of Christmas trees.

“They said, your trees can go, but you cannot go,” Mr. Lemay said.

Even his offer to hire Americans to sell his trees while he supervised was rejected, he said.

Lemay hopes to get his ducks back in a row next year. But for this year, his Christmas will have a hole in it.

“The rest of the year I'm mostly behind the computer,” he said. “When I go to New York, I live this unique experience of being on the sidewalk for 25 days, 24 nights in a row. I miss it … I'm kind of at a loss this year.”