At the Border

Updates below.
 Unusually for me, I've been back and forth across the border quite a bit over the past week since the new Nexus hours went into effect at the Canadian crossing here in Point Roberts.  Down in Bellingham a couple of times, up to the Vancouver airport returning children/grandchildren to the U.S. via Canada, and even a thrift shop, grocery, and laundromat visit to Tsawwassen.

We've been crossing at a variety of times, but the morning lines for the regular lane into Canada still look to be pretty long most days despite the new Nexus hours, although this morning at 9 a.m., it was minimal.  This afternoon, lots of waiting in both the Nexus and the regular lanes (both of them).  Our last two trips have had us choosing the regular lane (with two lanes operating) rather than the Nexus with one, and in both cases, the regular lane got us through faster, although not a lot faster.  I really would just like to cross the border and not have to try to game the system or even think about how to time it.  Twenty years from now will it be any better?

Down at Peace Arch, Nexus has been fine, but the waits to get into the U.S.  in the morning (ca. 9-10 a.m.) in the regular lanes were truly awful.  Somewhat ominously, the signs that describe the wait time at this crossing now say only "Wait time at Peace Arch: No Available Information" and "Wait time at Truck Crossing: N/A".  It's not a confidence building sign.  Probably they'd be better served by just turning off that sign.

Well, it's summer and the waits are long.  And not only is it summer, but it's B.C. Day weekend, so there are a lot of people moving across the Point Roberts border for weekend vacations, U.S. mail, U.S. gasoline, and--at least to judge from the emptiness of the International Market shelves--U.S. food.  If I were a Canadian, I'm not sure that I could legitimately claim that the Canadian border agency has a duty to make it faster for me to get back from Point Roberts for the latter three of those visits.  But if I were a Canadian coming down here, I'd sure think hard about getting a Nexus card.

A reader writes that AM 730 gives border and tunnel wait status reports every few minutes.  A second reader speaks up for AM 1130 and its every ten minute reports 'on the ones,' which I take it means at 01, 11, 21, etc. minutes past the hour.  And, finally, there is this Washington state DOT report on northbound border crossing waits at
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/small/BorderWaitTimes/Blaine.aspx
which is formatted for mobile phones.

Good Work, Canada! I Think, I Hope

Update:  This change goes into effect on July 23.  

Canada, apparently recognizing that the border waiting times at the Point Roberts crossing are getting quite problematic, has reached out to address the problem by extending the Nexus hours from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.  That's a big gain for those of us with Nexus cards, which we residents mostly have.  The problems over the past few months on the Canadian side of the crossing have been that the non-Nexus lines are really long.  I'm hoping that they realized that those lines were lengthened because there were so many Nexus holders in them and that, by extending the Nexus hours, the cars in the regular lane would also benefit.  Otherwise, the long lines on the Canadian side will continue, but the Nexus cardholders will get to sail [sale] on through.

Now, it is the Americans' turn to extend those Nexus hours at the Point Roberts border crossing.  Go, team!

Knowing Good and Bad

As it happens, I have made two trips to Bellingham and back in the past two days.  And both times, there have been things of an edible nature in my car.  What I have not taken into Canada is a potato, an apple, a pear, a peach, a nectarine, a cherry, or a blueberry.  An what I have not taken into the U.S. is a lemon, an orange, a lime, a grapefruit, a green onion, a chive or any gathering of chives, a dragon fruit, a starfruit, a mangosteen, a kiwi fruit, a tomato, or a green pepper.

On Wednesday, when I went from Canada to the U.S., I brought with me 5 tomatoes that were grown in Washington and as I came through the border, I confided to the the U.S. CBP person that I had five tomatoes from Canada, and he said that was good and I might go on my way.  However, on Thursday, word came down from on high that tomatoes from Canada were no longer good and they may not come here any more.

But, I still have those five tomatoes (or, actually three of them now) sitting on my counter and I say to them, "Are you good? Or, are you bad?"    It is hard to know.  The comforting thing, of course, is that bananas can go either way without anybody caring.  And that is good.

Beneath My Feet...Someday

I like a little carpet under my feet when indoors.  That is especially true in the somewhat irregularly built houses here in Point Roberts where insulation may be a tad on the thin side.  So, when we are doing a little remodeling and need something new underfoot, we think carpets!  And we are at that point right now in the house that Ed has been fiddling with over the past five years. 

Carpets!  So nice to have done, so unpleasant to get done.  Years ago in Los Angeles we were inclined to put a new carpet in a study.  We went to a carpet store where there were approximately 32 thousand different kinds of carpets.  We looked around for about fifteen minutes and without further consultation we exited the carpet store and didn't mention the topic again for three or four months.  And then, three or four months after that, I saw an ad in the newspaper which told me that the carpet people would have a telephone interview with me and, based on that, would bring a few samples to my house.  I called them; we talked; they brought five samples; I picked one; they came within a few days and put the carpet down the way it was supposed to be done.  I was never very crazy about that carpet, but at least it was not stressful to acquire it.

Now, here in Point Roberts, the acquiring and laying of a carpet is yet a different kind of matter.  We did this once before, about 12 years ago.  And here are the tasks: 1.  In what country do you buy your future carpet?  If you buy it in Canada, they will not deliver it to Point Roberts and then lay it because there are border issues with the Americans.  If you buy it in the U.S., they will not deliver it to Point Roberts and then lay it because there are border issues with the Canadians.  We found some carpeting we liked in a big place in Bellingham and when they asked if we would like them to deliver and install it, we mentioned Point Roberts and they laughed raucously.  What a great and charming and audacious idea!  Delivering and installing carpet in Point Roberts!  What would we be thinking of next?

So, you need to find an independent carpet layer who will deliver and install your carpet.  And what you really want is an independent carpet layer who has dual citizenship so that he can help you arrange the purchase of your carpeting from a Canadian company and can then pick it up and deliver it to your house.  He can cross the border with your carpet because he is a U.S. citizen and thus can lay your carpet.  We have the name of such a person.  So we called him and he agreed to help us with the purchase of the carpet, the transfer of the carpet to our house, and the laying of the carpet in our house.  As soon as we were ready to go with this project, we were to call him.

And we did, and it worked pretty well.  We went to the store, they didn't have too many kinds of carpets, we had a sample of a carpet we liked, they showed us what they had that was more or less like it, we picked one of them, we paid for it.  And we called the carpet guy to tell him it was done and when could he start.

Let us think of that as Day 1.  On Day 2, the carpet company called to say that the carpet layer thought it would be better to have the carpet from a 15 foot roll rather than a 12 foot roll, which left us with two problems.  First, the 15-foot carpet had to be special ordered, so it would be an extra week or so before they could get it; and second, the carpet installer couldn't transfer a 15-foot roll in his truck, so we'd need to get somebody else to pick it up and deliver it to us.  But that was doable, because Point Roberts has services that will do that for a price, which is to say an extra price of sorts.

On Day 15, the carpet arrived, but by now, the carpet guy had gone on a week-long vacation.  On Day 21, we called the carpet guy, but he had extended his vacation for another two weeks.  On Day 28, the carpet company called to say that the 15-foot carpet roll weighed 640 pounds and was 48" wide and maybe we would need to make some special arrangements for its literal pickup, and also we'd better install a 48 inch wide door to get it into our house.  So, we talked to the carpet guy and as soon as he got back, he said he would go to the warehouse and cut it into the 3 pieces it would end up in.  And then the pickup people would get it to our house.  But that didn't happen because they had it in the wrong warehouse and another 5 days were involved in getting it cut.  We're now at Day 41 or 2 but now the delivery guys can't figure out their schedule. 

Finally, today, Day 44, the carpet shows up.  It is announced with a call that the truck will be here in 30 minutes and is there someone who can help the guy carry it out of the truck and into the house?  Well, there's me, a nice medium-sized lady in her 70's.  I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to be the kind of help the driver needs, but fortunately Ed arrives in time to help.  It is heavy lifting, he reports.

So now, there the carpet is!  Or, there the three carpets are.  But just before the carpet got delivered, the carpet layer announced that, what with the delay and all, he won't be able to start laying it until next Tuesday, which will be Day 48.  And I think longingly of those people in Los Angeles who talked to me on the phone and brought those samples and in three days it was all over.  I'm going to like this carpet better, I think, than I did that one.  But the process is one that you can probably get only in Point Roberts.

What Do We Really Need?

This spring, the County has named a Point Roberts Community Advisory Committee, presumably on the off chance that there could be conversation on difficult issues prior to the high level screaming point from the Point.  The five people are to be meeting monthly in open meetings and their first meeting was this month but I, alas, was not here that evening.

However, the chairman of the group has sent us round some information and a request.  What it amounts to is this: Sometime ago, the County put in a penny a gallon tax on gasoline which was to be used by the local community.  Now, in that case, that 'local community' is us here in Point Roberts.  So the first thing the Advisory folks are doing is trying to figure out what we might use that money for.  At the moment, thanks to all those Canadians who come down here to buy cheaper gas, the fund for P.R. holds about $370,000.  That's an economic development plan all in itself, surely.

The kicker, however---and there is always a kicker when dealing with government (not a criticism, just a recognition of inevitability)--is that the use of the money is tethered to transit.  Specifically,


NOTE: These funds can only be used for “Roads and Transportation.” They cannot be used for docks or piers, lighthouses or whale watching platforms. State law limits them to “investment in new or existing highways of significance, public transportation, and other transportation projects and programs….”

In a place this small, it's a little hard to imagine too many transportation needs that involve roads.  I mean, we already have roads.  Of course there are things like wider shoulders for bike lanes or off road trails.  Unfortunately, we are also cautioned about the costs of such things:  Off-road paths: $2,000,000 per mile

            Widening road shoulders: $500,000 per mile

Okay, then, we could get a short path to somewhere or a few blocks of widened shoulder and then next year we could turn it into a bike path.  Oh, well.

My first thought was that there should be a transit lottery in which everyone with a permanent P.R. residence AND a car registered here would be entitled to enter the daily lottery for $1,000 worth of gasoline.  That would connect it to transportation because, at least in theory, those 365 car owners could drive more than they might otherwise do.  And people really seem to like lotteries.  And even I might like a lottery if I didn't have to pay for a ticket and there was some reasonable chance of winning something.  It seems to me as if it might easily be a 1 in 3 chances of winning $1,000 worth of gasoline in any given year.   And, at a thousand dollars a day, we could use up all $370K during one year.

On the other hand, the powers might not think that was really improving roads and transportation.

But then, here's the real idea.  What would improve transportation in Point Roberts?  For people who are in Point Roberts and particularly those who live here?  The answer to that, really, is simple: longer Nexus lane hours, both coming and going.  Almost everyone who lives here has a Nexus card.  So, just how many border guard salaries could we pay with our $370,000?  I don't know, but surely including benefits, they don't get more than $100,000 each?  (What do I know about salaries?  Nothing.  No one's paid me one in 15 years.)  If so, that's almost four additional guards.  Surely with three additional FTE salaries, both the Canadians and U.S. people could manage one extra shift for the Nexus lane each day.  Opening it at 8 am, say, and keeping it open until 10 pm or later.

Somebody else can work out the money and staffing and all that.  But surely there's nothing that would improve transportation in Point Roberts more than this.  Take it away, Chairman Reber.  The ball's in your court.

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.

Marking the Border

We went down to check out the new trail from the bluff to the beach on the northwestern corner of Point Roberts at Boundary Marker Park yesterday. I think it’s been there for awhile, but this was the first time I’d tried it. It’s certainly a great improvement going down with its broad, switchback trail, but it looked like more of a challenge than I thought my knee might like on the way back up. Thus, Ed and the (younger) visitors made their way back up to the car, while I walked alone down the beach to Gulf Road where they picked me up.

It’s a lovely beach walk (one of the Point’s more special hidden treasures) as long as the tide isn’t too high. It wasn’t; in fact it was very low, as the tides have been recently. There were little pools closer in here and there, but mostly the swimming ducks were a long way out. Nevertheless, on a spectacularly beautiful summer day, not too hot, not too cold, not too breezy, not too anything, and with the Point apparently still full of tourists, I was the only person on that long stretch of beach. That’s the kind of thing that amazes me about this place—how isolated one can be here, even when the place appears to be hosting crowds.

About twenty to thirty minutes of walking had me probably half-way to Gulf. Only then did I see anyone; a woman of indeterminate age, sitting up at the top of the beach, on a log, just looking at the water. I walked fairly close by, offered a greeting, and she responded by asking where I was heading. I told her what I was doing and she asked about the new path, which she hadn’t known was there. She said that she had come down the steps to the beach. I didn’t know what steps she was talking about, but I often don’t know things like that.

“Who built the path?, she asked.
“The County, I imagine.”
“‘Oh, am I in the U.S.?”
“Well, yes; you crossed the border back there where the marker says B.”
“Really? Does it matter?”

Our conversation extended a bit longer while we discussed border issues and whether the CBP agents were likely to be down on the beach and preparing to deport her or something. I remembered one of the first times I ever got into an extended discussion with a border agent, maybe 13 or 14 years ago, when he said to me with either irritation or despair, “Don’t you realize that these are different countries?” And I felt more empathy at this moment for his long ago irritation/despair. The beach lady, who had grown up in Ladner, declared that she felt the border people were intimidating. “Don’t they understand that we’re friends? That we wouldn’t do anything to hurt one another?” Hard for me to know quite how to respond to this. I can only imagine the despair in the air if she said it to the CBP people.

It’s a good walk: you start at the boundary marker on the beach (at least that would be my recommendation) via the new trail, and you end at the Tiki marker on Gulf. You're in the U.S. all the way. Good to know that if you are out walking.

Border Manners

We had a couple of ‘incident’ days at the border this past week. Ed was coming back in the evening from Bellingham, thus crossing two borders (Peace Arch and Point Roberts), and they were doing much longer question interviews, and were opening car trunks, etc. The Nexus lane was closed at this time, so this was happening in the regular lanes.

The next day, I crossed the Point Roberts border around noon and noticed, as I went through the Canadian side that there was a very extended car line-up to get into Point Roberts. I didn’t have a lot of business in Tsawwassen, and thus offered up a request to the skies that the CBP get this mess cleared up within the next half hour, say.

Alas, within a half hour I was back, and the lines had gotten only longer. There were two lines, one leading to the Nexus entry, the other to the regular lane (or lanes). I was too far away to be able to tell whether there were two regular lanes open. If I had known there were two, it might have been worthwhile going into the regular lane. On occasion, the Nexus lane computers get bollixed and people in the regular lane move quickly through (since they’re looking at passports there), whereas people in the Nexus lane wait and wait because some problem has arisen with reading the Nexus cards.

Anyway, I just stayed in the Nexus lane and hoped for the best. I waited, but lots of cars came up, saw the line and made amazing u-turns or drove up over the curb and over the park grass to turn the corner ahead thus avoiding going to the border. It was like dodgem cars there for awhile; at least until I advanced well beyond the end of the line, but still far from the border.

My general policy while waiting in line in a car if it is a slow-moving line is to turn the motor off until there are at least three car lengths in front of me. Saves on gas, saves on emissions. And it seems only right to do it while waiting in line in B.C. which advertises itself as an ‘idle-free Province’ (or words to that effect). So, I’m sitting and waiting and then after awhile, starting the car and advancing 50 or so feet, then turning the motor off again.

This line is truly moving slowly. Hard to imagine what they’re doing up front. The regular car lane doesn’t seem to be moving any faster, so maybe it’s leading up to only one lane instead of two. And then, a car from the regular lane suddenly pulls over in front of me in my (at the moment) 2-car length empty space. And then, five minutes later, it happens again.

At this point, I realize that no good deed comes without a downside. The fact that Nexus card holders can now go in any lane means that they can car hop from lane to lane opportunistically. When I get to that stop light intersection--a long block before the border--the light turns red and now there are additional spaces to jump into. At this rate, the regular lane will soon be faster. At this rate, I will be in this lane forever. At this rate, I will go back to letting the car idle throughout the experience, creeping ahead inch by inch constantly, giving no opportunity to the lane jumpers. Emissions, gas, all irrelevant, as I am experiencing fully my irritation at these drivers who can't stay put, even though they have no real information about what lane is going to get them through faster.

Almost 40 minutes after I got into this line, I get out the other side. There were, indeed two regular lanes, although those lanes weren't moving any faster than the Nexus lane individually, but perhaps (a thinly-held judgment drawn after the fact) were a little faster as a single choice in the range of say 2-3 minutes. The CPB folks are indeed inspecting cars, opening trunks, lifting up interior compartment lids, although I must not look like a dope runner because they just pass me through.

Maybe there’s some other way to think about this lane changing stuff, but I do remember how people took to very aggressive behaviors back in L.A. during the 1970’s gas shortage when cars cut into lines at gas stations. Probably not a good idea right at the border where all the CBP folks are armed. But still. Isn’t it bad enough that we have Goldman-Sachs and their like grabbing every opportunity to fleece us without our doing it to one another?

A Salute to the Border Folks

And today, not the trash, not the garden, not the animals: it’s the border.

A little over a month ago, the border people held a meeting up here and promised us that if we would only give them a chance, they would show us that things could be better. We didn’t really have much choice about giving them a chance, I suppose. They do what they do and we respond. But the thing is, they have done better. And here is the evidence:

1. They now appear to be opening a second regular lane at the border whenever a line starts to form. That means that people without Nexus cards aren’t stuck in blocks-long lines. We came through the border in the regular lane this week midday, a Tuesday, granted, which shouldn’t involve long lines in any case, but it’s summer and it was the day before Canada Day. A holiday mid-week is a little hard to figure with respect to the border, but when we arrived, there were two regular lanes with only two cars in each and we zipped right through.

2. This isn’t really a result of the meeting in Point Roberts, but it dovetails with the above fact that is a result. The border lanes are now configured so that if you have a Nexus card, you can go through any lane. Because on occasion the Nexus lane is longer than the regular lanes, that means if you have a Nexus card, you can go into the shorter lane, which is more efficient for everybody.

3. As a result of the border meeting and the bitter complaints about Nexus cards being taken for silly or no reason, the Seattle office (a shout out here to Michelle James who is the head of this region) ordered a review of all Nexus cards that had been denied or taken from Point Roberts residents. This was announced in the newspaper on June 1. I know of at least two people who have now had their previously denied/removed Nexus cards restored. In at least one case, the person received a personal phone call making arrangements for the final interview to be conducted and a personal letter after the card was issued. Furthermore, no additional fee. I don’t know how many cards have been removed/denied or restored, but at least this is clear evidence that the CBP are not only trying to do the right thing, but are actually doing it in these cases.

So, THANKS! to Michelle James and her staff.

Review Revealed

The border people have announced that they are willing (doubtless because of P.R. residents’ endless complaining) to conduct a special, amazing review of everyone from P.R. who has lost his/her Nexus card or who has been denied a Nexus card. Since there is normally no accountability for CBP with respect to this (that is, they don’t have to and don’t necessarily tell you why it is being lifted or denied, let alone look into the matter), this is seen as ‘special treatment.’ Further, these folks at CBP say, ‘at the conclusion of the review a recommendation will be made to the NEXUS ombudsman [located in New England] concerning a redress or reapplication process for any applicants or former members that may be merited.” (as quoted in the June All Point Bulletin.)

So, we’re all pretty happy to have such special treatment, although I must say it sounds a little like the kind of special reviews that some people on land leased in Cuba are getting: the reviews where you already know the answer to the question. There is no timeline on this review, says the CBP spokesperson, and there is further no real clarity about who is doing the review, although someone in Blaine has apparently completed doing something. Where to next? No indication. At the end of all this time, says Mr. CBP, “if there have been any errors in the administration of the program those few individuals will be contacted shortly and invited to reapply for NEXUS privileges.” (I think we could try to diagram that sentence, but it would then appear that the ‘errors of administration’ refers to ‘those few individuals’, so who knows what the CBP might have in mind?)

Now, I don’t want to be too picky about this, but “IF THERE HAVE BEEN ANY ERRORS”? Surely we might concede up front that there have been errors. Any government agency spokesperson who suggests that it is possible that their agency is operating error-free in the administration of their programs is surely at worst a knave or a fool, and at best unbelievably naïve. Why can’t the spokesperson just say, ‘We will address any errors that were made’? And, when they find such errors, why can they not correct them, instead of inviting people ‘to reapply’ which means asking them to ante up another $50/person? These are often people who have already reapplied at least once. I know these are hard economic times, but the feds can surely afford to pay for their own errors.

So maybe I, at least, am so far not so happy. Watch what they do, not what they say: advice that is always good to remember when dealing with politicians and government people generally.

The Border as Canadians See It?

Here is an article from the Toronto Star on how the Canadians see the U.S. border. Also note the comments. (Thanks to Miep for the link.)

Border Letter

It’s been several weeks since the border meeting here in Pt. Roberts and I’ve finally decided that I want to write a letter to Ms. James, who is the CBP Field Office Director for a large region including Pt. Roberts; the one who came with her large contingent to meet with us here in P.R. By now, of course, she has probably lost track of the meeting at which she had to listen and we got to talk. Well, maybe not. But I imagine that as cranky as we are here, we are yet only a very small potato on her plate.

But, the thing is, I want to write to her about things that she has no control over, so it doesn’t really matter whether she is thinking of us while we (or at least I) am thinking of her. Not going to change because they are things that nobody in the government could possibly care about. There are three of these things.

First, is the name of the Nexus Program. I don’t mind that it is called the Nexus Program (just as I didn’t care that the previous program was called the Pace Program). Both are largely meaningless names so neither provoked much response from my lizard brain. However, when she and her colleagues refer to it as the “Trusted Traveler Program,” the lizard goes into full enraged mode. It is NOT a Trusted Traveler Program. It is a Distrusted Traveler Program. After all, if they are routinely checking to see whether people with Nexus Cards are bringing nuclear warheads into the country, we can’t really be thinking that they trust us, can we? And when they ask us where we are going when we come to Point Roberts and they have our name and address right in front of them, but they need to see whether we sound guilty...well, I think they don't trust us. They need either to use the latter name when referring to it so that we all know where we stand , or they need to stop using ANY name other than the Nexus Program. I urge the second choice.

Second is also something of a language issue. Ms. James and her colleagues should stop telling the public to understand that, in the difficult work lives of her many CBP minions, said minions are occasionally liable to be having a bad day. It is not that I don’t want to or can't understand that, it is just that I don’t want to hear about how understanding I should be. Well, I don’t want to hear about it unless they are also willing to understand that occasionally the Nexus Card holder may also be having a bad day: the kind of day wherein they forget to notice that their spouse or child or grandchild has left something in the back seat of the car that shouldn’t be there when crossing the border. The thing is, when I have a bad day, I am likely to lose my Nexus Card; when the CBP folks have a bad day, I am likely to lose my Nexus Card. There’s something there that suggests we don’t have the kind of level playing field that would encourage my sympathy for their bad days.

The third and last is more of a process issue. Apparently, from all the stories I have heard from people who have lost their Nexus Cards, the individual CBP agents standing in their little booths are allowed to look you over and decide whether you have offended them sufficiently with your lettuce head or grandchild’s sweater and then confiscate your Nexus card on the spot. That seems to me a whole lot like letting the beat cop send you directly to prison without his first having to go through some tiresome legal process. I believe Lewis Carroll already caught the Red Queen in that maneuver: ‘Off with their Nexus Cards!” Sentence first, verdict later. Maybe better if they recommend, but somebody else makes the actual decision after thinking about it for more than five minutes.

That’s what I’m writing to Ms. James about.

Breaking News

Tonight, the CBP (Customs and Border Protection) sent up a phalanx of officers to alleviate our concerns, here in Point Roberts. We had a 2-star General, at least one 1-star General and eleven other CBP folks of elevated rank (all packing clearly visible guns in holsters) to talk to the maybe 80 people who turned out from the community. The CBP people were distributed in groups of 3 or 4 at tables around the perimeter of the room, and my first response was one of decided discomfort at the sight of so many uniforms, so many weapons.

And then matters deteriorated a bit. The meeting began badly because the CPB honchos seemed to think they had come to talk to us. Apparently, they had many individual prepared presentations, perhaps as a way of using up time, just in case the audience was at a loss for words. Twenty minutes in to their explaining what a hard job they have and what a good job they are doing, a hardy Pt. Roberts woman of a certain age (alas, not me) courageously got up and said, ‘I’m sorry; I’m not as polite as the rest of these people here, but you’ve come up here for 90 minutes and we want to talk to you, not have you talk to us. You need to hear from us.’

And, to their everlastintg credit, those CBP heavies spun on the dime, sat down and listened to us for the rest of the evening, responding appropriately to our concerns. At the end, they weren’t able to say, ‘Look, we’ll fix it all.’ But then, we didn’t expect that. We expected them to listen to us, to hear the legitimacy of our concerns. And for all I can tell, they heard. They seemed impressed with the depth of our concerns, our feelings, and our sincerity, and were not just giving us the brushoff in their responses. As one said to me afterwards, “I realized coming up here that a Nexus card isn’t just a convenience for you….it’s your life blood,’ and ‘Nobody ought to be fearful when crossing the border…at least not four times a day.’

They heard about people who have lost their Nexus cards for bizarre reasons, for trivial reasons, for no known reasons. They urged us to ask to talk to a Supervisor if we were offended by one of the CBP people’s behavior at the border. We told them that if you ask to talk to a supervisor, there is every chance that that request will be used against you in the future. We mentioned that the supervisors, even if you do talk to one, ALWAYS backs up the officer and then explains to YOU how YOU should be more understanding of the difficulty of their job. They told us to write to various CBP officers if we are displeased with the border guards’ actions or their supervisors’ responses. We told them that you never get a response. They told us to write to the Ombudsperson in Vermont; we reminded them that the Ombudsperson doesn’t reply or, if he/she does, provides you with no information. We said we needed a better process for dealing with the CPB perceived misbehaviors. They said that when we write to the Ombudsperson, be sure to mention that you’re from Pt. Roberts. The request for a better, different, independent, or common sense process for objecting to what was going on didn’t really make much headway, but then they’re not going to just say, ‘Cool, dude, I never thought of that,’ and then produce some kind of peoples’ court.

Finally, after many very specific accounts of bad or at least very dubious doings by their employees and colleagues, one of the officers (a Major) took out a note pad and started taking down peoples’ names and contact information so that they could look into the individual tales of disrespect and disorder that so many people here have been subject to over the past few years. General Michelle James (the 2-star), who was the primary speaker on behalf of the CBP seemed almost shocked by what she was hearing, as she again and again tried to assure us that ‘such things’ shouldn’t be happening. And that we should give them a chance.

My own feeling (which I did state) was that we no longer trusted them and it was going to take some time for them to build that trust back up but that we would be willing to try if they were; it wasn’t personal. Another local guy noted that they see us as the enemy and now we see them that way, but we’ve got to get past that, both of us. They responded that they were hearing us, that we would see changes, that they were deeply committed to professionalism, and they promised another meeting in a year (or less, was the advice of one of them privately).

Things to look for: (1) longer Nexus operating hours at least in the summer; (2) responses to complaints and to Nexus denials; (3) more clarity on the food rules (CPB did distribute a paper dated 3/30/2009) which provided current food rules, including the information that “US fruits, except citrus, may return [from Canada to the U.S.] if they are in season and clearly marked with US brand labels (For example, Washington apples with stickers).” And the officer responsible for agriculture issues (out of Blaine?) said that even citrus bought in Bellingham, e.g., labeled, packaged, and with a receipt, could go straight through to Pt. Roberts.

And some other interesting news that was not announced during the public part of the meeting but that one of the Generals told Ed and me when we were talking to him afterwards: you can now use the Nexus card in any lane because all lanes now have the ability to read the Nexus card.

My concerns were feeling a little alleviated at the end of the two hours. Anyway, I left the meeting smiling and feeling cordial, which is not always the case after meetings in Pt. Roberts, and almost never the case after a discussion of the border.

Two addresses of use from the meeting:

Michelle James
Director of Field Operations
CBP, USDHS
1000 - 2nd Ave
Suite 2200
Seattle , WA 98104-1049

Jonni Galarza
Passenger Service Manager
USDHS
9901 Pacific Highway
Blaine, WA 98230
(jonni.galarza@dhs.gov)
(360-332-6091)

Sad to say, I was not able to find a web page for the Seattle Operations Office of CBP that provided any detailed information about the names/phone numbers of the various officials operating out of that office. It may be there, but in 15 minutes or so of googling, I didn’t find it.

Concerning Our Concern Alleviation

The border people are coming up to alleviate our concerns next Tuesday (6:30, Community Center), apparently. I’m not even sure what those concerns would all be, but the concerns I am most familiar with are the lack of any clear rules about denial of or loss of Nexus privileges and the absence of any appeals process other than writing to a guy in Vermont who writes back to say, ‘I have looked into your case and you were denied/had revoked your Nexus card because we have a ‘zero tolerance program.’ What they don’t tolerate remains very mysterious.

However, it is not that New England ombudsman who is coming to talk to us. It is some lower echelon ‘muck’a’muck’ from Seattle who is going to address us. All our personal experience here in Pt. Roberts is that the border people under Chertoff and now under Napolitano DO NOT give you reasons for denials or revocations of Nexus cards.

Here is Congressman Larsen, in February (speaking to the Bellingham Herald):

Yet the [Nexus] program has many flaws including a rigid "zero-tolerance" policy for NEXUS card applicants and the absence of an appeals process. I have called on Congress to hold hearings on the NEXUS program. . .


On the other hand, here is the current text (Feb. 9, 2009) on the DHS website with respect to Nexus denials or revocations:

To qualify for one of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Trusted Traveler Programs, all applicants must voluntarily undergo a thorough background check against criminal, law enforcement, customs, immigration, agriculture, and terrorist indices to include biometric fingerprint checks, and a personal interview with a CBP Officer.

In the event you are denied or revoked from the SENTRI, NEXUS or FAST programs, you will be provided information in writing detailing the reason for this action. The letter will also contain guidance on how to seek additional information, if necessary.

If you feel the decision was based upon inaccurate information, you may contact the local trusted traveler Enrollment Center to schedule an appointment to speak with a supervisor. A list of locations can be found on the Trusted Traveler Programs web site. ( Trusted Traveler Programs )

If necessary, you may also write to the CBP Trusted Traveler Ombudsman at:

US Customs and Border Protection
300 Interstate Corporate Center
Suite 303
Williston, VT 05495
Attention: CBP Ombudsman

Thus we see that on Feb. 9th, DHS says there is an appeal process, and on Feb. 14th, Congressman Larsen says there is NO appeal process. It’s so hard to know whom to believe nowadays. But we’ll go to the meeting and see if, somehow, everything has changed.

Untrusted Travelers

More news from the newspaper: “Border muck-a-mucks to alleviate our concerns” (!) It is good to know that a mere visit to Point Roberts will alleviate our concerns, but I am pretty sure that that is a pie-in-the-sky kind of promise. It is as if Obama had turned into the man from Hope. Governor Gregoire had written DHS--some 6 months ago--asking that people denied Nexus permits or whose Nexus permits are revoked for unknown reasons be given that quaint legal right called ‘due process.’ The federal liaison eventually replied that, alas, ‘it is necessary to maintain strict eligibility criteria for participation in a trusted traveler program.’ So take your due process, he implied and, well, you know. But they’ll come up and alleviate our concerns.

George Orwell would like that trusted traveler program talk. You get a Nexus card demonstrating your trustworthiness, but then they take it away without ever telling you how you suddenly became untrustworthy. I try to think what they might mean by ‘trusted.’ Not really trusted at all is the only conceivable answer. Today, I was returning from Canada with my trusted traveler card and after the machine looked at my card I proceeded to the booth. Then the border agent looked at my card and then he poked my card into his machine (which means he’s looking at all my personal information). He then came back out of his booth and asked me in sullen tones, ‘Where are you going?’ I thought he might be talking to someone else, because I am obviously going to Point Roberts. When no one else appeared to answer the question, I replied, ‘Point Roberts.’ ‘Yes, yes,’ the surly voice continued, ‘WHERE in Point Roberts?’ ‘I live here,’ I replied, and named my street. I felt like name, rank, and serial number were going to be required next. ‘Oh, okay, go on.’ And on I went. Exactly what was I being trusted about there?? Were we checking to see if I knew that I lived here?

Well, they’re a little crazed up at the border now because they’ve at long last gotten their radiation detectors installed. That means that they've got some very expensive machines newly set up on the U.S. side to determine whether we border crossers are transporting radioactive materials across the border and into beautiful downtown Point Roberts. Back in 2006, some company got a very big contract to put these machines into all the border crossing stations and all the ports, and probably in the banks and the tunnels and in laundromats and other places where the untrusted travelers hang out. Except that they also put them in the Nexus lane, which means they don’t trust the trusted travelers not to be traveling with nuclear weapons materials in their handbags and briefcases. Some trust. In God we trust and everybody else is probably a terrorist.

So, now everyone entering Point Roberts is being checked for emitting radiation, which means that anybody who comes through the border and has recently undergone one of those medical tests that involve implanted radioactive materials gets to set off the alarm. And then gets to prove that it’s him and not his car that is carting radiation around. I found an account from some guy who got picked up for emitting radiation over at a Michigan border crossing. You can read what happened to him (posted under march 17, ‘that end of summer glow’), which wasn’t terrible or anything, but which process certainly is going to slow border crossings a great deal more since some millions of those tests are probably conducted each year in the U.S.

Well, one missed nuclear weapon is certainly going to ruin somebody’s day, so what more justification do they need? I was happy to read, in that news story about the upcoming May meeting between us residents and the muck-a-mucks, that the Dept. of Homeland Security ‘is confident that explaining [their] processes and maintaining an open dialogue will alleviate many of [our] concerns.’ I might be willing to trust them if I thought they'd be willing to trust me. Afraid the latter is off the table, though.

Canada Looks at Obama

And apparently Canadians are very pleased with what they saw, although they seemed to be just as pleased before they even saw him. When I talk with Canadians, it appears to me that Obama, unlike the former holder of the U.S. presidency, is highly regarded, but largely because he isn’t the former holder, etc. It’s more that they like him for who he isn’t rather than for who he is. From my American perspective, who he is remains to be seen. Nevertheless, on the CBC yesterday, people were talking about him as if he were a visiting rock star, with one person pointing out that Canada’s leaders don’t have ‘that kind of appeal,’ whatever ‘that kind of appeal’ might be. The Vancouver Sun proclaimed that “excitement in Ottawa around the presidential visit could not have been greater had the guest of honour been Mick Jagger, the Queen or Santa Claus.” Gee whiz! I am thinking that all three of those are pretty old people. How would he compare with the Pope? (Another old guy. Are there no younger famous people to whom he can be compared?)

He met alone with Stephen Harper, the Canadian Prime Minister, for about a half hour, a fact much remarked upon by U.S. news. But he also met, alone, with Michael Ignatieff, the leader of the opposition and possibly the next Prime Minister, for about a half hour. My guess was that neither of them thought he was much of a rock star, but then I found this quote from Ignatieff: “I've been lucky in my life to meet famous people and some people seem smaller when you meet them. [Obama] was just as big as you think he is. He is a very, very big presence.” Harper, sort of by contrast, said in a CBC interview that “Mr. Obama is an easy guy to like and an easy guy to get to know." (I wish I shared that feeling.) The CBC also reported that Harper and Obama got to talk about their hopes for their families and their countries. The news reader made it sound as if Harper was just a tad short of looking into Obama’s eyes and seeing his soul. So I guess he’s pretty rockstar to Canadian leaders, too.

The Globe and Mail (NYTimes equivalent in Canada) reported that there was considerable discussion between Harper and Obama about the border and its openness, or lack thereof. The Canadians think it’s a mess. Obama noted that bottlenecks need to be cleared up. But The G&M also reported that “Mr. Obama's Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, has ordered a review of security at the Canada-U.S. border – heightening Canadian concerns that U.S. security measures are clogging the flow of goods across the border.” (Globe and Mail, 2/21) I don’t know why that would heighten Canadian concerns. My hope is that Mr. Obama, on behalf of the U.S., shares those Canadian concerns. But we will see. We are busy writing our own letters to Ms. Napolitano on this subject.

Some Canadians were not happy that the border concerns arose solely in terms of economic issues. Lloyd Axworthy (former Liberal Minister of Foreign Affairs and current President of the U. of Winnipeg) commented: ”What concerned me was the talk of the border solely in economic terms. Granted, it is important. But we have had too many examples of how the security preoccupations have trumped the issue of civil liberties and rights. Under secret agreements signed after 9/11, there has been an abuse of fundamental rights and an erosion of Charter protections vis the Arar and Khadr cases, among many.” Happy that someone in politics is looking out for our civil rights! Wish it were someone in the U.S.

Canadians are also concerned about Afghanistan and global warming, but they didn’t get much from Obama on either. However, Harper and friends are going to DC next week to see if they can make more headway on Afghanistan with that new sun/star, rising and reigning to the south.

No Sooner Said Than Done

Yesterday, I noted that border ‘exit interviews’ are being required for private airplanes, and asked what’s to keep Homeland Security from requiring them for people in private automobiles. Today, Ed drove down to Bellingham and points south and upon his return to the border at Peace Arch, was treated to an exit interview by the U.S. border people as he was driving to the Canadian border people. The exit interviews were being required of both Nexus and Non-Nexus travelers.

And what were their questions? Where are you going? Do you live there? What were you doing down here? Where do you fly out of?

“What were you doing down here in the U.S.?” This is now a question that we ask of a U.S. citizen. Not only that but a U.S. citizen in the fabulous trusted traveler program. Not very trusted. When last I checked, American citizens have a constitutional right to travel anywhere in the U.S. And I would think that might include not having law officers ask you what you are doing if they have no reason to believe you are doing anything that is against the law. But then, oh, right, I forgot: he was in a ‘Constitution-Free Zone,’ that amazing little circle that travels around with the border people, wherever they choose to be (within 100 miles of the actual border/coastline).

Karl Kraus, an Austrian journalist-writer who died in 1936 (and thus didn’t get to see where it all ended up in the 20th Century) once wrote that Vienna was ‘the research laboratory for world destruction.” Ah, where has the laboratory moved to today?

What's My Problem?

I am wishing that I knew why we have a Department of Homeland Anything. I don’t remember anybody every talking about the U.S. as the homeland. It reminds me immediately of the Russians use of motherland and the Germans use of fatherland during World War II. To me, it has an inherent sound of fascism, although Wikipedia says only that it has 'ethnic nationalist connotations.' Who in the last dismal administration thought that was how Americans think of their country? When they get around to figuring out who ordered all the torture, I hope they allow a few moments for determining who named that new agency 'The Department of Homeland Security,’ rather than, say, The Department of National Security.

And speaking of DHS, they instituted a new regime last November (the waning days of that dismal administration) designed to irritate me and doubtless others, even though it doesn’t actually affect me as it stands. But as it stands, it could easily be transferred to affecting all of us who leave the country by legal routes. As of November ’08, anyone who leaves the U.S. in a private plane must first inform the DHS that they are leaving the country and who is leaving with them. Obviously, one has to do this when one is entering the U.S. in a private plane, but why should one have to inform them when one is leaving? Because they want to know everything about us, I guess.

When I leave Point Roberts by car, I am not required to inform either my father or my Congressperson or my U.S. border guards that I am leaving. Why should anyone have to do this just because they are leaving in a private plane instead of a private car? Well, says DHS, it has the authority to do this because it already requires commercial airlines to report their passenger lists to DHS before the commercial plane takes off on an international flight. I don’t know by what authority they can do that, but then I don’t know by what authority they can require the same of private planes. Something like the DHS Sec’y is allowed to do whatever he wants if it occurs to him to think doing that will keep us safe. No reasons required.

I suppose that if we oppose this, then the terrorists will win. At least that’s what it says here. [This site may be hard to bring up because of heavy traffic. I got it this afternoon, but can't get it to come up tonight. jwr]

Winter Blues

By 4 p.m. today, it was dark outside, what with the heavy clouds overhead, and we are yet almost three weeks till the winter solstice, at which point the daylight begins to lengthen. Each year, by December, I have forgotten how dark it becomes, how early it becomes dark. Lots of fog and mist about, too. Yesterday, the ferry offered a lovely view of the mist coming down (or, I guess, rising up). Fortunately, the highway provided a steady mist-free zone all the way to Point Roberts.

Not only mist-free zones. The winter is also bringing us more constitution-free zones. I knew this phrase previously as what applies at the actual border and which phrase is used to seize your computer or phone in order to investigate its contents without any probable cause or warrant. The ACLU reports that the border people are now extending their need for a greater reach into the population by setting up more and more ‘check-points’ far away from the border; at least as the public thinks of ‘the border,’ but not as the D. of Homeland Security likes to think of ‘the border.’ Their view is that anywhere within 100 miles of the actual border, they are free to set up check points and stop and question everyone going through, in the interests of ‘national security.’ And 'the border' is the edges of the country all the way round.

Now they’ve had, for decades, a checkpoint down on I-5, near San Clemente (as I recall), and I once went through one well west of El Paso, but both those locations are a pretty straight run-up from the border. The ACLU reports that they are now setting up checkpoints over in western Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula, and that organization strongly suggests that the agents are neither looking for nor finding terrorists. Immigration stuff, instead. So, ACLU (and all of us who care about the Constitution) may be headed for the courts on this.

I am not a lawyer, but I know something about constitutional law. I was astonished to find that the Courts permitted INS/DHS to set up checkpoints all over the place in order to insist that I and any other random traveler answer a lot of questions when there is no probable cause to have stopped me in the first place. Freedom to travel within the U.S.: one of those other little things, like habeas corpus, that I just take as a given. Okay, I accepted that checkpoint near the San Diego border, but that doesn’t generalize to one in, say, Santa Monica. But the DHS’s view is they are entitled to do this anyplace within 100 miles of the U.S. edges. The ACLU points out that 2/3 of the entire U.S. population currently lives within 100 miles of the U.S. 'border.' So 2/3 of you Americans reading this can contemplate what you might think if they set one up near your house, on your travel route.

And to add to the craziness of this stuff, the Washington Post reports today that we are now going to have 20,000 military personnel in the U.S. assigned to military duty, in case of something happening. (Remember posse comitatus? Oh, well, never mind; that’s so 20th Century). None of this sits well with me. But what with the Mumbai attackers allegedly entering that city via speedboats, well…. I suppose the sky, the sea, the freeway system, beaches, caves, back yards, whatever: there’ll be no limits on looking for the boogeyman. And while they are at it, they can also check on who we are and where we are going. Some big daddy-ism going on there. Check it out, O.

And also: the government in Canada is teetering absolutely. But we wait until next Monday for the final event.

Sign of the Times?

This is the colorful, attractively-designed sign at the border station coming into Point Roberts. We all see it every time we cross that border, which is thousands of trips (cumulatively) per month. In fact, last month, the border crossing figures into Point Roberts were thus (with the October, 2007 comparison figures in parentheses):

Total Vehicles: 56,980 (58,673); Nexus Vehicles: 29,932 (16,299). The Nexus lane vehicles are a part of the ‘Total Vehicle’ numbers, but obviously there’s been a very big increase in Nexus lane crossings, even though overall crossing numbers have gone down slightly.

Now, back to that sign. At the border crossing there are, I believe, four lanes. The Nexus lane is #3; the sign in the picture is on the far side of lane #4. Which is to say that it is more visible from the Nexus lane than from the first two standard lanes. So those almost 30,000 vehicles that pass close by the sign every month have a very good view of it. Despite this fact and despite the fact that people in Point Roberts discuss the border on all social and business occasions, I have never heard anyone inquire or question or comment on this sign. At no time has anyone, to my knowledge, mentioned the parrot.

The sign orders us to declare fruits, vegetables, plants, and meats. It shows us, as examples of those categories, a tomato (perhaps), an orange/lemon/grapefruit, a philodendron, a ham, frankfurters/cocktail sausages, …..and a parrot. Surely not a fruit, a vegetable, or a plant. Surely not, well, …..I mean, What about the parrot?