The Foreign Service Journal, October 2007

the border into Point Roberts. The town has a small primary school serving kinder- garten through 2nd grade, while older chil- dren ride the bus daily to Blaine, 30 miles away. Like the postmaster, they cross the international boundary four times daily. Point Roberts is certainly the most visi- ble, but not the only, anomaly along our border with Canada. With the introduc- tion of a new passport requirement for everyone — American and Canadian — entering the U.S., Point Roberts has become a case study for all the points along the border that would be uniquely affected by the new law. Here, where high school children cross into Canada to get to their schools in the U.S., parents of teenage chil- dren grasp more quickly than most the impracticality of having their children safe- guard a secure document like a passport in their backpacks. There are similar cases in other parts of the United States’ northern border. From New Brunswick’s Campo- bello Island, Canadians have to drive through Maine to get to the main- land. The Akwesasne First Nations Reserve straddles the U.S.-Canada border (and, up to now, members of the Mohawk nation there have had their own entry lanes and travel docu- ments). Another case is the Thousand Islands region, along the St. Lawrence Sea- way, where boating is the principal means of trans- portation between the two countries. All these anomalies underscore the need for flexibility and creative think- ing on the part of Canadian and American officials on both sides of the border. F O C U S O C T O B E R 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 39 Rand McNally Road Atlas, 2004 Google Map Data