Canadian Undergrad Transfer (need help)

My very close family friend's brother just finished his freshman year as a Canadian studying at a Canadian target university (Queens, McGill) and is considering transferring to an American target/semi-target.

His belief is that the debt taken would be worth it if he wanted to work in the US (which he is dead set on doing), especially considering the current VISA uncertainty for Canadians wanting to working down south.

For reference, he would have to only take loans for his last year at the US target/semi-target, probably anywhere from 50-75k. He would graduate with no debt from either of the Canadian schools.

His opinions regarding transferring are limited by his knowledge on the subject (pertaining to Canadian transfers to US IB/PE/HF etc target schools), mostly through lack of information regarding Canadians in a similar scenario specifically (ex. on this site).

He suggested places like Georgetown, USC, UVA etc as options that were possible but I frankly do not have the information to give an accurate and informed opinion... What schools should he look at?

For reference, he re-took the SAT (was previously much lower) in his freshman year and scored a 1480, freshman GPA of 3.8, with the assumption that this GPA is held throughout his sophomore year.

I personally am out of the IB/PE/HF game and graduated over 5 years ago from a top Canadian school but stayed in Canada, so I don't know what to tell him, which has led me here.

Thoughts ?