WASHINGTON – Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer told Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday that if the Canadian government continues to resist reopening its land border with the United States, the U.S. should act on its own to reopen its side of the border to Canadians who wish to enter.
"I said if they come up with no plan or a plan that would be so cumbersome that it would make travel at the borders slow down to a snail's pace and be ridiculous and cumbersome, the U.S. should just open unilaterally," Schumer said in a telephone interview shortly after speaking with Mayorkas.
Covid-19 infection rates on both sides of the border have plummeted to lows not seen since early last year.
"He was very open to that suggestion," Schumer, a New York Democrat, added.
Schumer's afternoon call with Mayorkas was part of a double-barreled effort on the part of the majority leader to press for a border reopening. Schumer was scheduled to speak with Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the issue Thursday evening.
People are also reading…
Those calls come six days before July 21, when the latest month-long extension of the border closure is set to expire. The two nations shut the border to nonessential travel early in the Covid-19 pandemic on March 21, 2020, and have extended the closure on a month-to-month basis ever since.
For months, Schumer has argued that decreasing infection rates and increasing vaccination rates on both sides of the border mean it's time for the two nations to negotiate a reopening.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has proved to be reluctant to quickly reopen the border, however, which is why Schumer proposed unilateral U.S. action if Canada won't cooperate.
The U.S should do that "if that's the only way to get the Canadians to move," Schumer said.
The co-chairs of the House Northern Border Caucus – Rep. Elise Stefanik, a North Country Republican, and Rep. Brian Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat – previously suggested a unilateral opening. But Schumer became the highest-ranking U.S. official yet to suggest a break with their practice of managing the border in a largely joint manner during the pandemic.
Schumer said he also told Mayorkas that he's very concerned about the possibility that Canada will agree to open the border to vaccinated Americans, but only if they take a Covid-19 test both before they leave America and after they arrive in Canada. That's the standard Canada continued for Canadians returning at the land border as of July 5, when the nation eased its standards slightly, waiving a quarantine requirement.
In a letter to President Biden, those 75 lawmakers – led by Rep. Brian Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat, as well as Michigan Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga and Florida Democratic Rep. Kathy Castor – said the pandemic has eased to the point where cross-border travel can resume.
Requiring vaccinated travelers to take two Covid-19 tests would be so burdensome that it would inhibit travel, Schumer said. So in the conversation with Mayorkas, "I said that would be ridiculous," Schumer said.
"I mentioned that we allow vaccinated people here in the U.S. to go to football stadiums and concerts and movies," and that Canada's vaccination rate has increased dramatically in recent months, he said.
"It's absolutely crazy to hold things up the way they have," Schumer added.
Mayorkas told Schumer he would be speaking with his Canadian counterpart, Bill Blair, the minister of public safety and emergency preparedness, about the border closure.
