A Point Roberts deportation case built on a 2018 voter registration has ended before reaching a judge: Paige Adamson, a 61-year-old Canadian citizen and U.S. green card holder, died at her home in the Washington state enclave on Oct. 18, about two weeks before her Nov. 4 immigration court date. Her son says she turned down a hospital trip after a fall because she feared that leaving Point Roberts would cost her the right to come back, The Canadian Press reported. The fear had a footing in the statute: for a permanent resident in removal proceedings, a drive from the enclave to a mainland doctor counts as leaving the country.
The Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office and the county medical examiner said the death appeared to be from natural causes and non-criminal, Cascadia Daily News reported on Oct. 20. The news reports on her death include no comment from CBP or DHS.
Adamson’s case began on Sept. 15, when border officers held her for about six hours on her way home from a birthday dinner in British Columbia and asked whether she had ever voted. She received a notice to appear the next day. According to The Northern Light, the notice alleges that she falsely claimed U.S. citizenship when she registered to vote in Washington on Sept. 12, 2018, and that she voted in that November’s election. Earlier coverage of the Washington border voting cases explains the two charges and why neither offers a waiver to a permanent resident in her position.
Her son, Dylan Adamson, told The Canadian Press that paramedics advised her to go to a hospital after she fell earlier this month and that she signed a form declining further care. “She would have went to the hospital. The only reason she didn’t is out of fear,” he said. Her primary care provider was in Bellingham, Cascadia Daily News reported, and getting there from Point Roberts means crossing into Canada and back into the United States.
How a Point Roberts trip to the doctor becomes a border case
A green card holder coming home is normally not treated as seeking admission at all. Section 101(a)(13)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act lists six exceptions, and one of them fits a person like Adamson exactly: a permanent resident who has departed the United States “while under legal process seeking removal,” including removal proceedings. Once her notice to appear was issued, any trip off the enclave carried that risk.
Being treated as an applicant for admission changes three things. The charges move to the inadmissibility side of the statute, where the unlawful-voter bar in INA 212(a)(10)(D) and the false-citizenship bar in INA 212(a)(6)(C)(ii) mirror the deportability grounds she already faced. The burden of proof flips: DHS must prove a permanent resident deportable by clear and convincing evidence under INA 240(c)(3), while an applicant for admission must show she is “clearly and beyond doubt” admissible under INA 240(c)(2). And INA 235(b)(2)(A) says an applicant for admission who does not meet that standard shall be detained for proceedings, with release left to DHS parole discretion.
The only exception to both voting-related grounds, the Congressional Research Service has noted, covers people whose parents were all citizens, who lived here permanently before age 16 and who reasonably believed they were citizens. An adult immigrant from Canada cannot meet it.
The enforcement push behind the case
The screening is part of a federal focus on noncitizen voting ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms. CBP asked for Whatcom County’s voter file on Aug. 30 and USCIS requested Washington’s statewide file on Sept. 3, Cascadia Daily News reported. CBP told CBC News in September that officers check permanent residents’ documents against federal and state databases and that signs of unlawful registration or voting can lead to removal proceedings. Acting Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter has said the Justice Department charged 70 people in voting fraud cases this year, according to Votebeat, whose review of recent cases found no sign of an organized effort. The push has drawn court limits on DHS voter investigations in nine states and on the Justice Department’s voter-roll citizenship checks, and it is now in the Ninth Circuit over California ballots.
Adamson’s case ends with her death, but other Point Roberts residents with pending removal cases face the same problem. A trip to a mainland doctor means leaving the United States. When they return, they would be treated as seeking admission. If their pending charges are the kind that also bar admission, as the voting charges are, the law calls for them to be detained. DHS can release such people on parole, but it has not said whether it would do so for residents who leave only for medical care.
This article is for general information and is not legal advice.
Sources
- The Canadian Press via CP24, “Son says Canadian died in U.S. after declining hospital care due to deportation fear” (Oct. 23, 2026)
- Cascadia Daily News, “Afraid to cross border for medical help, Canadian living in Point Roberts dies” (Oct. 20, 2026)
- The Northern Light, “Point Roberts resident dies after border questioning leaves her trapped” (Oct. 21, 2026)
- CBC News, “Canadian citizen and U.S. permanent resident detained at border crossing, questioned for hours about voting” (Sept. 26, 2026)
- Votebeat, “What we know about the 70 noncitizens the Trump administration has charged with illegal voting” (Sept. 25, 2026)
- Congressional Research Service, “Immigration Consequences of Unlawful Voting by Aliens,” IF12767 (Sept. 18, 2024)
- 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(13)(C) (INA 101(a)(13)(C))
- 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(6)(C)(ii) and (a)(10)(D) (INA 212)
- 8 U.S.C. 1225(b)(2)(A) (INA 235)
- 8 U.S.C. 1229a(c)(2) and (c)(3) (INA 240)
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