'Mind-blowing' decision by U.S. to extend land border restrictions leaves those across the line baffled and worried

VANCOUVER -

When the U.S. government released its decision Wednesday morning to bar Canadians from entering via land crossings for at least another month, Aly Hayton said she was stunned.

“I was speechless for a moment,” Hayton, the owner of the only grocery store in the tiny U.S. exclave of Point Roberts, said, “And then I wanted to cry.”

Len Saunders, an immigration lawyer who lives and works in Blaine, Wash., said he was disappointed, but not surprised.

“There seems to be no reasonable reason,” Saunders said. “There’s no logic in this continued closure. At this point, I’ve stopped guessing.”

The U.S. memo, which outlined the restrictions, read they were being extended because “the risk of continued transmission and spread of (COVID-19) between the (countries) poses an ongoing 'specific threat to human life or national interests.'”

The rules, which have been in place for 16 months, prohibit non-essential travel over the land border between Canada and the U.S., though Canadians are still able to fly into the country.

The extension also comes 48 hours after Ottawa announced it would allow fully-vaccinated Americans to enter Canada, beginning Aug. 9.

Hayton worries the few hundred customers she and other Point Roberts businesses have left are about to dry up, with no one to replace them.

She plans to reassess the financial situation for her supermarket, the International Marketplace, and take it week-by-week.

“If all of these other businesses close, even if I can squeak by and make it through to next summer, what’s going to be there for people to come down to next year?” Hayton asked.

The U.S. Congresswoman who represents Point Roberts bluntly echoed Hayton’s worries.

“Continuing the border closure all but ensures more businesses will close and more livelihoods will be destroyed along the border,” Rep. Suzan DelBene wrote in a statement.

In its reasons for the extension, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security outlined concerns that ramping up travel could put both tourists and border officers at increased risk of contracting COVID-19, while at the same time acknowledging increased vaccination rates, particularly in Canada.

American John Adams, who owns property on Vancouver Island, and has booked airline tickets to return to Canada Aug. 9, said he was “flabbergasted.”

“Here we are not allowing one of the most vaccinated people in the world to come (in),” Adams said. “Not only would (Canadians) be safe, they would be good role models for Americans.”

When asked about the extension, Premier John Horgan told reporters while he couldn’t “predict or control what the U.S. does,” he said he doubted British Columbians would be “lining up in large numbers to travel south until they truly feel the pandemic is behind us.”

As for when the restrictions might be lifted, the Homeland Security Secretary wrote his department “is working closely with counterparts in Mexico and Canada to identify conditions under which restrictions may be eased safely and sustainably.”

Hayton, who received some additional funding from Washington State earlier this month to help her remain open, said she will step up her efforts to convince the Prime Minister and U.S. President to grant Point Roberts an exemption, calling it the "perfect" border pilot project.

“It’s mind-blowing to me that they can’t figure out a way to make this work,” Hayton said.

And her advice for both leaders?

“Look at what your decisions are doing to these actual people: we’re actual people out here that are going to lose everything.”