WASHINGTON – There's no sign that the U.S.-Canadian land border will reopen anytime soon, but amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Rep. Brian Higgins on Friday tried to pry the border open ever so slightly more.
In a letter to President Trump, Higgins said the U.S. should loosen its restrictions for Canadians entering the U.S. to mirror the standards that Canada has set for Americans heading north of the border.
“I ask you to implement carefully calibrated exemptions to these restrictions – based on reasonable public health metrics – for property owners and those traveling to reunite with family across the border," Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat and the co-chair of the House Northern Border Caucus, wrote. "The Canadian government has relaxed restrictions for travel of family members of Canadian citizens on two separate occasions already. The United States, however, has yet to adopt similar exemptions for land border crossings.”
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Higgins' letter follows the Canadian government's decision this week to broaden its exceptions to the travel ban. Under the new policy, foreign nationals in exclusive dating relationships, grandparents, siblings and nondependent children can reunite with their loved ones in Canada so long as they agree to quarantine for 14 days upon their arrival.
That was the second time the Canadian government has loosened its regulations. Over the summer, Canada started allowing spouses, common law partners, parents and dependent children to enter so long as they agreed to that two-week quarantine.
Higgins said the federal government should not only adopt policies similar to Canada's, but also take regional Covid-19 infection rates into consideration and possibly reopen the border more widely in areas with low infection rates.
"Your administration must take these developing considerations into account and modify cross-border travel restrictions to accommodate the shifting circumstances in our northern border region, including expanding exemptions for cross border travel," Higgins wrote.
Read the full story from News Albany Bureau Chief Tom Precious
The border closed to all but essential traffic in March. The latest extension of that closure is set to expire Oct. 21, but officials on both sides of the border expect the closure to continue until the pandemic abates.
There's no sign of that happening in either Western New York or Southern Ontario.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Friday that Western New York's Covid-19 positive test rate stood at 1.3%, which he termed "not good." Public health officials said they grow more concerned about the virus spreading widely whenever the positive test rate reaches more than 1%.
Meanwhile in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that the country is already in the midst of a "second wave" of the pandemic.
"Yesterday we hit the highest daily recorded cases, well above what saw this spring," said Trudeau at a news conference in Ottawa.
With concerns about the spread of Covid-19 increasing, land border crossings into the U.S. remain restricted to:
• U.S. citizens returning to the country
• Individuals traveling for medical purposes
• Individuals traveling to attend educational institutions or places of employment
• Individuals traveling for emergency response or other essential government purposes
• Individuals engaged in lawful cross-border trade, such as truck drivers
• Members of the military
