Closer to the Border

It's been a year since the residents of Point Roberts held their landmark meeting with the Customs and Border Protection personnel.  At that meeting, there were a lot of armed border agents and a lot of residents looking like those weapons were understandable.  The residents were very, very angry, and the agents had to sit for a couple of hours and listen to us count and recount the ways in which they had been behaving pretty abusively toward us.

At the end of that meeting, Michelle James, the head of the Northwest office, promised that they would do better and would come back in a year to see whether we felt differently than we did that night.  Last Thursday night, about 125-50 people filled the Community Center (and a lot of that number was CBP and Canadian customs and border personnel, this time much less obviously armed).  Happily, the community people also seemed less metaphorically armed.  And that is because Ms. James has been as good as her word: conditions have improved vastly at the border.  Oh, sure, we've still got a bunch of irritations, but it's not like it was last year when people seemed in fury or despair, as often as not.  The CBP met with thank you's and cogently put questions; no one seemed on the edge of tears, as I was, for example, last year.

First some current data.  At the Point Roberts border station, 43% of the crossings involve people with Nexus cards.  Overall, there are 175,000 Nexus cards issued in the western U.S., with 86,000 cards issued by the Blaine enrollment center, alone.  Of the approximately 1,500 Point Roberts residents, 1,066 have Nexus cards.

Some history: Last year's biggest complaint, perhaps, was about what appeared to be random denials or seizures of Nexus cards.  Ms. James ordered a review of every situation in this area in which a Nexus card was either revoked or denied.  They found 167 such instances, but they were unable to locate the people involved in all of those cases.  However, about a third of them were contacted after the review and 14 of those individuals had their Nexus cards restored.

Some future news: At the end of June, Point Roberts border crossing will get an agriculture specialist five days and week.  This will make it possible to determine whether it would make sense to have a full-time agricultural specialist stationed in Point Roberts.

During the past year, there has been considerable increase in U.S. staff which has made it possible to keep that second lane open all the time, which has made a big difference to everyone.  The Canadian side is still working to improve their lineups...or maybe to de-prove them.

Agricultural issues continue to be a lively matter of concern.  The current problem (for us if not for them) is that the U.S. has a clearly defined 'in transit' policy for people coming from Blaine/Bellingham, etc. directly to Point Roberts.  The policy is this: if you buy it in the U.S., then you can take it 'in transit' into Point Roberts as long as you have a same-day receipt.  This was very exciting sounding to those of us at the meeting.  But then the Canadian folks dropped their dime: Canada has no comparable 'in transit' policy from Blaine/Bellingham to Point Roberts.  Which is to say, if you can't bring something into B.C. in the first place, it doesn't matter that you are going to Point Roberts and have a same-day receipt.  Thus, e.g., oranges could go from Bellingham to Point Roberts under the U.S. 'in transit' policy; cherries can't because you can never take cherries across the border to Canada, whereas you can take oranges across the border into Canada.  So, the 'in transit' policy gives people going to Point Roberts some leeway, but not complete leeway.  No stone fruits, e.g., go into Canada, so no stone fruits, with or without receipts, go 'in transit' into Canada.

Questions were posed about the practice variations by which some of the (especially new) border guards seem to feel a need to ask an awful lot of questions of us Trusted Travelers, whereas other (especially older/more experienced/been here longer) border guards move us through rapidly as if they did indeed trust us.  Not much to hope for with this problem, though.  The CBP position is that there is a learning curve on this job and they are learning on us.  So, I guess, try to think of yourself as a teacher.  However, the P.R. port director assured us, being a learner does not justify disrespect, rudeness, or abuse.  If we have a complaint with how we are being treated by an officer, however, this was the strong message: Do not deal with issues 'on the line.'  Take your concerns to Port Director or the Supervisor inside.  Or call 945-5211 during the Monday-Friday day shift to discuss the problem.


Finally, about those random inspections down at the Peace Arch where they search your car when you can't see what they are doing.  Travelers are separated from the agents at that point to ensure the agents safety.  The traveler, it is said, may behave badly.  I noted that the agent might behave badly, as well, and was advised that there were always bad apples, blabla, but the bottom line was the agent's safety is what matters.  Although, there was later a suggestion that a new/trial program currently in use in Detroit could be introduced here.  It would allow people to stay with their cars when the inspection was just a matter of random inspection, as opposed to 'for-cause' inspection.


And, finally, I wrote here several months ago about, during a random inspection, being asked whether I was travelling with scissors.  The explanation was simple: again, it is agent safety.  If the agent is going to be putting their hands into places they can't see, they want to know whether there are sharp implements in the car that they need to be careful of.  That explained why, when I said that I was travelling with scissors but that they were in my purse, the agent said, 'Oh, good, that way they won't find them.'  He meant find them unexpectedly and painfully.  Fair enough.


After 90 minutes, everybody went home and felt a lot better about things than they had last year.  We've still got some ideas about how things could be better, of course, but then we are American in that way.