Paige Adamson, a Point Roberts resident who was recently detained by U.S. border agents, interrogated, and given a court date for deportation proceedings, died on Sunday after expressing she was afraid to cross the border again to seek medical care. Adamson was a 61-year-old Canadian national with Legal Permanent Resident status.
Adamson’s death was reported to the Whatcom County Medical Examiner's office on Oct. 18, and the cause of death has not yet been confirmed. Deportation proceedings had begun for Adamson, who had been living in Point Roberts legally for 14 years, after a Sept. 15 trip to Canada for her 61st birthday dinner. According to an interview with KING5, Adamson said she was detained at the U.S. border for around six hours and questioned about whether or not she had ever voted in a U.S. election.
Adamson was set to appear in court before a federal immigration judge on Nov. 4, according to a Notice to Appear issued to her on Sept. 16. According to the notice,, the Department of Homeland Security alleged that Adamson misrepresented herself as a citizen in registering to vote on Sept. 12, 2018 and voted in a federal, state or local election on Nov. 6, 2018. These are both civil infractions, cited in the I-877 form provided to Adamson with the notice.
On Oct. 17, the day before her death, Adamson spoke to Len Saunders, an immigration attorney in Blaine with ties to Point Roberts, and expressed that she wasn’t feeling well, had missed doctors appointments in Bellingham, and was afraid to cross the border to see a doctor.
“It’s interesting because your typical person in deportation proceedings is someone who’s here illegally, they’ve claimed asylum or they have criminal convictions, and when you leave you can’t come back. You self-deport,” said Saunders, who has practiced U.S. immigration law in Blaine for 25 years. “But as an LPR, legal permanent resident, you have the right to come back in.”
“But the problem is, she could be detained for four or five hours at the border as they determine whether to parole her back in and she could be taken into custody and sent down to the Northwest Detention Center, so that was her concern,” he continued.
Other cases like Adamson’s are cropping up across Whatcom County and the country. Saunders mentioned a man in his 50s who got his green card at 17 who vaguely remembers getting a voter registration card in his 20s and thinks he voted. He went on to tell Saunders that the last time he crossed the U.S.-Canada border, he was pulled into secondary questioning and told it was random, but he was questioned specifically about voting.
Saunders also mentioned the case of a nurse from Blaine with LPR status who took a leave of absence from her job in Surrey because she is afraid to cross the border daily, as well as the case of a retiree in Everson who has had his green card for 30 years and has been summoned to an ICE check-in in Ferndale.
Saunders said he files around one naturalization application every day. “One of the questions on the form is, ‘Have you ever voted or registered to vote,’ and I swear, once a month, someone says, ‘Well, of course.’”
Green card holders are not allowed to vote. However, Saunders alleged the state Department of Motor Vehicles “will sign anybody up.”
Before applying for citizenship, Saunders said applicants typically need to deregister at the courthouse, then obtain an affidavit saying they were unaware they weren’t allowed to vote. Saunders would then accompany them to the citizenship interview.
“They would turn a blind eye to it as long as the person admitted that they made a mistake. Now there’s no discretion and where’s the happy median? You can’t be deporting people who’ve lived here for 30 years,” Saunders said. “It’s almost gone from low enforcement to enforcement on steroids.”
When asked if those pulled into secondary questioning can ask for a lawyer before being questioned, Saunders said, “Normally you don’t have the right to legal counsel at the border, but you have the right to not say anything. You have the right to not self-incriminate.”
“If I was in this situation as a permanent resident, I probably wouldn't leave the country until there’s a change of administration,” said Saunders, who is from Canada and became a naturalized U.S. citizen years ago.
For people in Point Roberts in this situation, like Adamson, not leaving the country poses a myriad of problems. Doctors, specialists and the hospital are all two borders away. Many residents have mainland jobs, not to mention that access to major retailers, dentists, veterinarians and more is only available on the other side of the border. Boat and plane travel is possible, but not necessarily accessible to all Point Roberts residents due to financial constraints or physical ability to travel by air or sea.
Saunders said of Adamson, “She was in all practical purposes in detention, even though she wasn’t, because she’s an LPR, because she was in removal proceedings, because she was threatened that she may not be able to come back in and if she was allowed back in she may be in detention. She was a prisoner in Point Roberts.”
