FRONT PAGE

Keep crossing that border, it could get easier

By Meg Olson

Border brass and a congressman played to a full house at the Point Roberts Chamber of Commerce meeting, and brought along a few revelations.

Ron Hays, Assistant Deputy Director for the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Seattle district, is the chief of inspections for all border crossings in Washington and Idaho, and all sea and air ports, including pre-clearance in Vancouver. He does it all with about 250 officers, he said, and is expecting 111 more in the next year, thanks to a congressionally mandated boost in border resources. Three of those will be assigned to Point Roberts, to supplement the 11 already there.

“When we look at where the resources are going to go, we’re going to look at where the workload is,” Hays said, explaining the Point’s cut of the new inspectors. At the Peace Arch crossing, five million vehicles were inspected in 2001. Point Roberts inspectors saw 850,000. Peace Arch will get 20 new inspectors and 5 support staff to act as cashiers. Hays said that, looking at a chart showing average wait times since September 11, Point Roberts was faring better than other county ports. “The very bottom line is Point Roberts,” he said. “In October the average wait time was nine minutes.” Of the three new inspectors for the Point, one will be a new hire and two will be experienced inspectors transferred from other locations, Hays said.

Kenneth Peck, area port director for U.S. Customs is in charge of all Whatcom County border crossings and Friday Harbor. He said customs was also planning to ramp up staff and would be looking to hire part-time inspectors locally. “My intention is to add at least two positions here,” he said. “We are currently accepting applications for Point Roberts.” Peck said, because of the Point’s remote location the agency could use a non-competitive selection process and entry level positions didn’t require a law enforcement background.

“People in Washington D.C. heard you,” U.S. Representative Rick Larsen congratulated chamber members for their push for more border personnel. “I think what you’ll see is a decrease in lines and an increase in traffic.”
More staff at the border will lead to more open lanes and shorter lines, but regular border-crossers, which in Point Roberts is everyone, don’t want to wait at all – they want PACE or a replacement commuter lane back. Most questions from the audience of more than 60 related to when and how the proposed NEXUS program would be in place and what could be done for regular border crossers in the meantime.

“We are looking at having NEXUS lanes completed at Peace Arch and Pacific Highway by June and I hope we can open in July,” Hays said. Point Roberts is third in line for a NEXUS lane but first in line to sign up for the system. “Point Roberts will be the first group of people we will offer enrollment opportunities to,” he said to a round of applause. Hays said he wasn’t going to make a distinction between U.S. or Canadian, resident or property owners in opening enrollment up to Point Roberts first.

Hays said NEXUS was being held back by several issues, including the level of security required in background checks, whether program participants would be fingerprinted and how much it would cost. “All agencies need to come together and decide what we want and do it the same way nationwide,” he said. He said participants with criminal records would likely not be allowed to participate, though applicants would be reviewed individually. “We’re going to want participants to be squeaky clean,” he said.

Hays said that the INS was now required by law to charge for the program, since it gave a special benefit to those enrolled. “The other thinking is that every traveler benefits and border services benefit as well, so there should be no fee,” he said. Larsen’s northern district director Andy Anderson said congress was currently considering legislation that would waive the fee requirement for all commuter lanes. In any case, Hays said, he intended to insure PACE participants got a credit for the unused portion of their PACE fees.

Parents in the audience were concerned about children needing to have their own NEXUS cards, radio frequency cards with their pictures on them that trigger a record when they approach the booth, and asked if family cards were an option. “Technologically, it’s possible,” Hays said, ”but our plan is for every participant, even infants, to have cards.” He said it allowed more flexibility and increased security for children.

The idea of a residents-only lane in the interim met with little enthusiasm. “I’d still have to staff that lane,” Hays said. Anderson added, when his office had looked into the possibility, they found the residents lane might end up more backed up than the regular lanes.

As the crowd dwindled at the tail end of the three-hour meeting, Joan Roberts brought up an issue familiar to many frequent visitors to the Point – how many times can Canadians cross the border and how many days can they spend here. “Our community is more linked to Tsawwassen than to the rest of Whatcom County and an open border is important to the health of that community,” she said, describing Canadian customers who were told at the border that they were “coming down too often.” “Is there a law that sets restrictions on how often you can cross and is it the 180 days we’ve heard,” she asked.

Hays was emphatic that there was no magic number. “There is no rule about how many times you cross,” he said. “If you get an officer that tells you you’ve used up your quota for the year, very politely get their name or the time and what lane you were in and tell me.” He explained that Canadian visitors to the United States do not need a visa but are restricted to a six-month stay. However, that did not mean there was a 180 day yearly quota for days on the Point or times across the border.

“The clock restarts every time you cross the border,” he said, so two six month visits to the Point could be separated by only an afternoon in Canada. “Visit” was the key, not the length of the stay. “They can’t live in the United States without INS approval,” he said. “They can’t be a defacto immigrant.” Hays said inspectors at the border looked at how much time was spent on the Point as well as other residences in Canada to determine if someone was just visiting or had made the Point their home. “What’s the person doing here and are they visiting for pleasure?” he said, pointing out that business visitors and other categories were allowed stays of differing lengths. “There’s no limit to how much you cross the border but it might be something we want to find out more about,” he said.

BACK TO TOP