Canadian woman in WA questioned over voting dies

A Canadian woman who was living in Washington State has died, and her family says it's because she was too scared to go to the nearest hospital across the border in Canada over fears that she might not be able to return home. Paige Adamson was a Canadian citizen and a permanent U.S. resident who was living in Point Roberts, Washington. Back in September, she was questioned for hours at Border Patrol, including if she had ever registered to vote. And when they found out that at one point she actually had, she was given deportation orders. And this morning, we are speaking with her immigration attorney, Lynn Saunders. Lynn, good morning. Good morning. How are you? Doing well, thanks. Thanks for joining us. Now, Paige Adamson made headlines last month when she was stopped at the Point Roberts border crossing, interrogated for hours about whether she had unlawfully voted in a U.S. election. Tell us about that interview with Border Patrol that day. Well, what they did was it seemed, you know, at the beginning for her just to be a random secondary coming back from Canada. But after a few minutes, she realized it was different than all her other crossings. And what they did was they took her into a room and they did a very lengthy sworn statement. And they told her that they had evidence showing that she had not only registered to vote in Washington state, but voted in a past election. After about five or six hours, she was released into Point Roberts. So she was not taken into detention and she was issued a notice to appear for a deportation hearing on November the 4th in downtown Seattle in immigration court. So that's what she was dealing with when she passed away just over a week ago. OK, so so she accidentally registered to vote, but she didn't accidentally vote in a U.S. election. What's the what's the deal there? Well, she she couldn't recall, but it's interesting because a few people looked it up after. who she spoke to. And they said that on the Washington state website, it said that she had voted and she had registered. She couldn't recall, but the record was there. And this is actually similar to quite a few other people who I've spoken to over the last month, mostly Canadians, all permanent residents living in Washington state. Okay, now Point Roberts is unique geographically. It's located in the US, has no direct land connection to the rest of the United States. So you have to cross an international border or arrive by water or air to get there how did that factor into this case well that was a big problem with her case all these other people are in Bellingham and Blaine and down your way in Snohomish so for her to actually come over to you know the rest of Whatcom County or the U.S. she would have either have had to have driven through Canada so left the U.S. and then re-entered at let's say Peace Arch near my office in Blaine or she would have had to have chartered a boat or airplane to leave the point to come over to Blaine or Bellingham and she didn't have a lot of money the problem with taking the the cheaper out which is driving is technically you self-deport if you're in removal proceedings the only catch is as a permanent resident you have the right to re-enter but she was basically put the fear of God in her that if she left when she came back there was a very good chance she could be in a one-way trip with government officials to the Northwest Detention Center down at Tacoma. So she was really scared on what to do. Number one, she didn't want to be deported. And then also she had some medical conditions that she was concerned about. Now you were telling me you were seeing issues with voter registration brought up with other clients, right? Well, I've seen this for years. I've seen at least one case a month over my 25 years of practicing immigration law. What I'm seeing now is the government actually enforcing the law. I think they're just fed up with what's been going on in states like Washington State, where the state's saying it's not happening. It is. I've seen it for years. Now you're seeing all these cases. Page is just the one that was vocal about it. You know, the Washington, what's it, the Secretary of State issued a press release yesterday saying, I think there'd been 15 instances of voter fraud since 1982. I've seen 15 just in the last two weeks. So I don't think Washington state understands what's really going on and the magnitude of it. Okay, so what's next in this case? What's the family seeking here? Well, I think this family's trying to get her body, unfortunately, back up to Canada to bury it. But at this point, there's really nothing that they can do. This was a worst case scenario where you have someone who's trying to defend herself and stay in the United States where she has retired or she's a widow. And now she's passed away and can't even go to her court hearing, which is, I'm assuming, still scheduled for November the 4th down in Seattle. What do you advise for people who have permanent resident status? Well, definitely, if you get a driver's license, make sure that you don't click on that button or get registered to vote. So that's kind of the kiss of death. So be very careful getting a driver's license in Washington State if you're not a U.S. citizen. And then if you do get registered to vote, immediately cancel it. Do not vote. Just make sure to scrub any of those records because it's illegal. And so if they do vote, then they're going to end up in a situation like this, right? Well, all of these people that I've seen so far are Canadians who left the country and came back. When they came back, the federal government had put a lookout on them. So the people who haven't traveled, my advice is don't travel. But who knows? I don't know if federal agents are going to come knocking on their door at their home or their work and serve them with the same paperwork. Who knows going forward? I've never seen this in 25 years. It's kind of been like a secret that's been happening that nobody's really discussed. And now it's kind of coming to the top of the discussion because of the current federal election. Immigration Attorney Lynn Saunders, thank you for your time. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you.