METRO VANCOUVER – A North Vancouver man is in shock after being banned last month from entering the U.S. for five years after being hassled by a U.S. border guard in Point Roberts.
Leah Shaffer and his wife, Jenafor, have owned a cottage in Point Roberts for the last 23 years, but one particular border guard began questioning Leah (pronounced Lee) almost three years ago about whether he was working and living in Point Roberts.
"The guard said, ‘You’re going down too much – you’re living here,’ " Leah Shaffer recalled in an interview Friday.
He was asked to produce documents to show his ties to Canada, such as bills, employment records and bank statements, which are known as "ties and equities" documents.
He took the documents to the border crossing two weeks later to prove he is renting a home in North Vancouver and pays monthly bills on this side of the border.
"They absolutely grilled us," Shaffer said, pointing out that he works for BC Ferries in Tsawwassen and occasionally goes to his cottage mid-week to water the garden and mow the lawn.
He recalled the border guard, whose last name is Proctor, said: "If you come down here at night during the week, we assume you’re sleeping here."
The rule is that Canadians cannot stay longer than 180 continuous nights in the U.S., he said.
"Every time you leave [the U.S.], the clock resets," Shaffer added.
After showing his documents, he said, the red flag beside his name on the U.S. Customs computer at the Point Roberts border was removed. But he began taking his "ties and equities" documents in his car every time he went down to Point Roberts.
Shaffer thought everything was resolved until Feb. 26, when the same border guard accused Shaffer of coming to Point Roberts too often and said the problem wasn’t properly dealt with the last time.
"He asked to see my ties and equities but I didn’t have them – I was driving my wife’s car," Shaffer recalled.
The guard demanded to see three years of cancelled cheques and other documents, he said.
"I thought I was being targeted," Shaffer said, adding the border guard made Shaffer turn around and head home.
His wife, an executive assistant at Pacific Newspaper Group, which publishes The Vancouver Sun, was waiting in Point Roberts to have a wedding-anniversary dinner.
It was snowing and on the way home a truck slid down a hill, broadsiding Shaffer’s vehicle, injuring his back and neck. "I was in rough shape," he said. His recovery delayed him returning to Point Roberts for two weeks.
He phoned a U.S. official to ask what documents he needed to show and was told to write a letter to Michele James, director of field operations for Customs and Border Protection in Seattle.
Shaffer recalled he had earlier met James when she attended a town-hall meeting in Point Roberts to discuss border problems experienced by Canadians and U.S. residents.
"She ran a fantastic meeting," he recalled of James. "She heard complaints, wrote them down and resolved people’s problems."
When he went to cross the border the next time, the same border guard was aware Shaffer had written a letter to James, complaining about the guard’s demands.
"He was quite upset," Shaffer recalled.
He was asked to return with all his documents for a meeting on April 26, which took eight hours. The same border guard asked Shaffer questions.
Shaffer said he showed daily work records, income-tax returns, bank statements and four years of cancelled cheques – everything he’d been asked for.
Shaffer said he was again accused of lying and not providing sufficient ties and equities to prove he lived and worked in Canada. He was banned from the U.S. for five years.
"I was stunned," Shaffer said. "I think I’ve done everything right."
He said he even sent his ties and equities documents to Len Saunders, an immigration lawyer in Blaine, Wash., who deals with border issues full-time.
"His documents were excellent," Saunders said Friday.
"They were more than satisfactory. I think it’s unfair what they did to him. It seems almost retaliatory."
The lawyer suggested the border guard was aware of Shaffer’s letter of complaint about the guard, and was offended.
"The officers at the border are judge, jury and hangman," Saunders said.
Shaffer and his wife are so upset, they are selling their Point Roberts home.
"We love it down there," said Shaffer, getting choked up.
"We tried to follow the law and I got banned for five years. It turns your world upside down."
Jenafor Shaffer doesn’t want to return to Point Roberts "because I’m worried they’ll do the same thing to me," she said Friday.
"This border is not friendly any more. Most of the border guards are wonderful but you only have to get one [who isn’t]."
Inquiries about the case were referred to U.S. Customs Chief Tom Schreiber in Blaine, who didn’t return calls.
nhall@vancouversun.com
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