WASHINGTON – The House Northern Border Caucus – led by Reps. Brian Higgins of Buffalo and Elise Stefanik of the North Country – is pushing the Biden administration to make it easier for Canadians to visit their loved ones in America and to create a policy making it possible for people in both the U.S. and Canada to travel to properties they own on the other side of the border.
Those are just two of the recommendations Higgins, a Democrat, and Stefanik, a Republican, laid out in a letter signed by 20 members of the Northern Border Caucus and sent to Biden on Thursday. Six days after Biden issued an executive order calling for the U.S. and Canada to develop joint plans for managing the border amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the letter from the border-region lawmakers also proposed several other suggestions for how to do that.
“For communities like Western New York a trip across the border feels like a trip across the street," Higgins said. "And after nearly a year divided, we are in desperate need of a plan to reconnect with our Canadian neighbors. The pandemic creates challenges, but working together we can develop policies that protects and benefits communities on both sides of the border."
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Stefanik agreed.
"Today we’ve outlined tangible steps the Biden Administration can take to immediately relieve the hardships placed on border communities while charting a clear pathway forward," she said.
The letter – also signed by Republican Reps. Chris Jacobs of Orchard Park and Tom Reed of Corning – calls on the U.S. and Canada to work together to develop a plan for reopening the border, which has been closed to nonessential travel since the early days of the pandemic last March 21.
Given that Covid-19 continues to spread on both sides of the border, a complete reopening of the border is unlikely to happen soon. But in the letter, the lawmakers suggest a series of interim steps.
Most notably, they suggested that the U.S. do what Canada has done and allow close family members to reunite in the U.S. as well as in Canada. Canada loosened its policies regarding such cross-border family visits last summer, but the U.S. never did the same thing.
"The U.S.–Canada border has operated efficiently because of coordination and seamless processes crafted by both governments working in tandem," they wrote. "Reciprocating family travel exemptions continues in that tradition of coordination and lessens uncertainty for families approaching the border just seeking to reunite with loved ones."
In addition, the lawmakers urged Biden to work with Canada to develop a policy that would allow Americans to visit property they own in Canada, and vice versa.
"Traveling by car directly to their property to quarantine in isolation could be done without any contact or transmission risk," the lawmakers wrote. "Additionally, proof of a negative Covid-19 test prior to crossing the land border could provide further protection against spread of the virus, while restoring the rights of individuals to visit their property."
The lawmakers also want the U.S. to try to persuade Canada to change its policy barring American recreational boaters from entering Canadian waters. Canadian boaters are allowed into U.S. waters so long as they do not dock or anchor in the U.S., and American boaters should be able to do the same in Canadian waters, the lawmakers said in the letter to Biden.
