Nervous About Crossing the Border? You Should Be. |
The town of Blaine, Washington, is within eyesight of the Peace Arch border crossing—one of the busiest ports of entry along the Canada-U.S. frontier. From his office there, Len Saunders has spent the past few months watching border traffic plummet by nearly half, panic set in among travellers, and U.S. Border Patrol agents exercising their authority to the limit—and beyond. Here, he talks about why Canadians are right to be nervous about heading south, how political overreach is reshaping immigration law and what travellers should do now.
You’ve worked in immigration law through seven presidential administrations since 2000. What’s different today?
I’ve never seen this level of enforcement. I’ve seen border slowdowns before, after 9/11 and during the pandemic, but nothing like what’s happening now under Trump 2.0. If someone doesn’t have quite the right paperwork, they used to say, “Come back tomorrow.” Now you run the serious risk of being detained or maybe even deported. Meanwhile, Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, has made outrageous comments about deporting whole immigrant families together, and how that’s at least better than deporting them separately. I don’t think he’s being ironic.
How are people responding?
Canadians are boycotting by not coming........