The five-square-mile nub of land at the end of the peninsula in Washington State is easy to miss. It’s attached to Canada, about an hour south of Vancouver, but sits just below the 49th parallel, which means it’s part of the United States.
Point Roberts is a one-of-a-kind community, surrounded by water on three sides and sharing a land border with Canada to the north. Canadians own about 70 percent of the homes, while for years Canadian day-trippers flocked to Point Roberts to buy cheap gas, groceries and beer, and to board their boats docked at the 950-slip marina.
But President Trump’s attacks on Canada, claiming it should be the 51st state and calling the prime minister “governor,” have introduced new hassles and unusual tensions to this community of 1,200 full-time residents. The number of cars crossing the border at the entry at Point Roberts fell 29.3 percent in April compared to the same month in 2024, as some Canadians are no longer making the trip to frequent Point Roberts stores and restaurants.
Sales at the International Marketplace, the only supermarket in Point Roberts, have fallen 20 percent since the end of January.
“I totally understand where the Canadians are coming from, but we need their support when times are tough,” said the owner, Ali Hayton. “That’s not going to happen this time. Nobody saw this coming. This is next level.”
The backlash to the president’s expansionist broadsides has reverberated all along the 5,500-mile U.S.-Canadian border. Trade has been disrupted in sister cities like Windsor and Detroit. Canadians have canceled vacations to the United States and some have sold their vacation homes in Sun Belt states. Canadians are shopping less in border cities like Bellingham, Wash., and Buffalo.
In Point Roberts, an unincorporated community, the crisis has left locals dazed because they are inextricably linked to both countries. About half of the year-round residents have dual citizenship. Fire trucks have decals with the Stars and Stripes and Maple Leaf flag next to the words, “Together in Unity.” (Many firefighters are Canadians, too.)
The community is just one of a handful of pene-exclaves, or territories that reside in another country, in North America. Residents send their taxes to Washington State, but Canada supplies all of Point Roberts’s electricity and potable water and processes its septic waste. The tills in Ms. Hayton’s supermarket have two trays, one for U.S. currency and another for Canadian cash.
“On July Fourth, we raise both flags and play both national anthems,” said Bennett Blaustein, who moved to Point Roberts from California in 2013. “If something happens, we all pull together.”
Point Roberts has been caught between the two countries before. In 1973, Canadian politicians resisted sending water to the community because at the time they viewed America as a ravenous and ungrateful neighbor. Gas stations, stores and restaurants in Point Roberts get hurt when the U.S. dollar surges, scaring off Canadian shoppers.
Point Roberts was hit hard during the Covid-19 pandemic when Canadians could not enter, and American residents had difficulty getting to the U.S. mainland. Galleries, restaurants, gas stations and package stores shuttered. The remaining businesses have continued to struggle. The International Marketplace, for example, used to get four truckloads of deliveries a week before the pandemic but now needs just one or two.
The troubles this time seem more personal. Shag the Band couldn’t wait to return to Point Roberts. The eight-piece tribute group from Vancouver played a charity concert last summer, and it went so well that they were invited to return this August.
But the band soured on the gig after Mr. Trump’s attacks and reports of Canadians being harassed at the border.
“We decided to cancel the minute someone there started attacking our sovereignty,” David Joyce, one of the bandleaders, said from his home in North Vancouver. “We’re heartbroken we’re not going down there.”
“It’s like when one of your siblings gets divorced and you can’t have a relationship with the in-laws,” his wife and fellow band member, Jill McLennan, added.
Drivers entering the United States have noticed far longer waits at the border. To reach the United States mainland, Point Roberts residents cross into Tsawwassen, Canada, and then drive about 25 miles to a major crossing into Blaine, Wash. The backups getting into Blaine are particularly onerous, lasting 45 minutes or more, residents say.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security not respond for comment on the crossing times in Washington State.
Annelle Norman, who started “Circle of Care” to ferry the older residents to doctor’s appointments and shopping trips, finds the delays and increased scrutiny at the border arbitrary and frustrating.
“Point Roberts has never been a convenient place to live, but now there’s intimidation on top of it,” Ms. Norman said. “I have green card holders who are afraid to cross the border.”
Two Canadian couples who visited the Pier restaurant every weekend during the spring and summer months told Tamra Hansen, the owner, that they loved her but they would not return until there was a new president in the White House.
“It’s amazing to me to see the Canadians who don’t normally stand up for themselves stand up for themselves,” said Ms. Hansen, a dual citizen born in British Columbia. “Honestly, I’m going day to day, week by week. I had to cut the chef’s hours in half. I’ve been here for 25 years but have never seen it this bad.”
She and other residents sympathize with the Canadians. They provide a financial lifeline, but have also been neighbors and friends for generations. Many cars in town sport bumper stickers that read, “Point Roberts Wa Supports Canada!”
The ad hoc boycott by Canadians has revived the never-ending debate about how to preserve Point Roberts’s solitude and beauty while reviving its teetering economy.
Ms. Norman, who is on the Point Roberts Community Advisory Committee, which relays suggestions to officials in Whatcom County, Wash., said consultants are working on ideas to bolster the community. She and other residents want Point Roberts to become more self-sustaining by, among other things, upgrading internet connections to attract work-from-home professionals and installing solar panels to reduce reliance on Canadian electricity.
Adding sewer lines, sidewalks and other infrastructure could attract new business and development, but Point Roberts doesn’t have enough residents to become a city or town to make it easier to issue bonds to pay for the improvements.
Brian Calder, a fourth-generation resident and a former land-use consultant, said reaching out to Canada is critical. He has been circulating a petition calling on Canada and the province of British Columbia to provide relief from “retaliatory taxation and/or tariffs on humanitarian grounds.” He believes tariffs will drive up the cost of building materials and other essentials that contractors need to build and refurbish homes in the community.
“Our economic people here, our stores and service community, we always suffered an economic winter,” Mr. Calder said. “But during the spring, summer and fall, they made enough money to subsidize themselves through the winter. Since Covid and the border lockdown, that has dried up.”
For now, residents try to broadcast that while, yes, Point Roberts is American soil, it welcomes Canadians. The message has fallen on deaf ears. Over the border in Tsawwassen, Maple Leaf flags hang in stores and restaurants. At the Rose & Crown, owner Shelley Metrow removed almost all the American beer and wine.
“I feel really bad for Point Roberts because they’re our friends,” she said. But “some people are saying Point Roberts needs to go to their own government for help.”
Ken Belson is a Times reporter covering sports, power and money at the N.F.L. and other professional sports leagues.
Ruth Fremson is a Times photographer, based in Seattle, who covers stories nationally and internationally.
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