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Mystery of Toronto mayor’s whereabouts deepens

TORONTO — The mystery of Mayor Rob Ford’s whereabouts deepened Tuesday, following reports that he did not enter the United States as expected but instead returned to Canada after landing at a Chicago airport.

Ford’s lawyer said last week that the mayor had left Toronto for rehab after a video surfaced that appeared to show him smoking a crack pipe late last month, nearly a year after reports of an initial video that appeared to show him smoking the drug. The lawyer, Dennis Morris, said Ford’s plane was headed for Chicago.

But Roy Norton, the consul general of Canada in Chicago, told The Globe and Mail that Ford voluntarily withdrew his application to enter the United States when he landed and was ‘‘not denied entry, per se.’’ Canada’s foreign affairs department deferred comment to US officials.

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Kris Grogan, a spokesman for US Customs and Border Protection, said in an e-mail that the federal Privacy Act prevents officials from commenting on ‘‘an individual’s processing,’’ but he noted that anyone hoping to enter the United States must ‘‘overcome ALL grounds of inadmissibility.’’ He said there are more than 60 grounds for inadmissibility, including criminality and security reasons.

Once foreign visitors are formally denied entry, they have to receive special permission from the government to try to come back. If Ford decided on his own not to ask immigration authorities to let him in, future visits could be as simple as presenting his passport at the border.

Associated Press