How this Washington state border town got caught up in Trump’s trade war with Canada

Tamra Hensen has lived in Point Roberts, Washington, for 25 years, and for the majority of that time, she says it has been a wonderful place to live. At just 5 square miles and surrounded by water on three sides, Point Roberts offers easy access to beaches and hiking, and a small-town, relaxing-getaway feel. “It’s beautiful,” she says. 

But the past two months have turned the once-bustling exclave into a “ghost town.” On its fourth side is the Canadian border; Point Roberts sits on the bottom of a Canadian peninsula, completely separated from the mainland U.S. It’s entirely dependent on Canada for electricity, drinking water, tourism, and its overall economy, residents say—but since Point Roberts sits below the 49th parallel, the boundary line between Canada and the western U.S., it’s part of the states.

Canadians have long flocked there to buy American goods, pick up packages, or vacation in beachside cottages—but President Donald Trump’s tariff war with Canada, as well as his incendiary comments about making the northern neighbor the 51st state, have upended that harmony. If U.S. relations with Canada continue to deteriorate, and Canadians continue to boycott American products and abstain from trips across the border, Point Roberts residents and business owners fear the worst: the death of their small, idyllic town.

‘This one could be a knockout’

Point Roberts businesses have already taken a hit since Trump’s second term began. Hensen runs two of the town’s three restaurants, the Saltwater Cafe and The Pier. “It’s spring break right now for Canadians, and I usually have a line out the door,” she says. “And I don’t.” She has run the café for nine years, and estimates the Saltwater’s business is down 55% compared to what it usually is this time of year.

Ali Hayton lives across the water in mainland Washington state, but she has owned the International Marketplace, Point Roberts’s only grocery store, since 1998. The store is 40,000 square feet—a necessary size, she says, to accommodate the usual spring and summer tourism rush, which can mean 8,000 to 10,000 customers a week. (Only about 1,100 people live on Point Roberts year around.) But by mid-March, the usual start of Canadian spring break, her business was down more than 30%. She has already shifted from two deliveries a week to restock her shelves to one. To get to her store, U.S. trucks must drive through two border crossings. (Driving from the northernmost part of mainland Washington state to Point Roberts takes about 40 minutes; though there was once ferry service offered during COVID-19 lockdowns, currently there is no such option.)

The drastic drop recalls the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when rules shutting international borders took away 80% of her customers overnight. All of Point Roberts suffered during lockdown; multiple restaurants and other businesses closed and the ones left standing never fully bounced back to pre-pandemic levels. “It’s like a one-two punch,” Hayton says. “We got back up after one but we were stumbling around. This one could be a knockout.” 

Already, one business said it has to shut down because of the Trump administration’s actions. Point to Point Parcel, a packaging and shipping service, sent an email to customers this week, saying it would close permanently. “Due to all of the government decisions and tariffs, we have been forced to close our doors on April 19, 2025,” the email read. “[P]lease know this wasn’t a decision made lightly and this past month has been a greater struggle than all of Covid!”

Point Roberts has long benefited Canadians, too

Parcel services are one of the businesses that, before Trump, thrived on Point Roberts’s unique geography. As an American exclave attached to Canada, Point Roberts doesn’t only benefit from Canadians visiting for its beaches or views; it also benefits those Canadians. They can buy American foods at Hayton’s supermarket—”They love American dairy, like cheese and Tillamook ice cream,” she says—and they can have items from the U.S. shipped to Point Roberts parcel services to avoid higher fees for shipping into Canada. 

Canadians have also benefited from lower real estate prices. Residents estimate about 70% to 75% of the homes on Point Roberts are owned by Canadians who use them for vacations. “It was beachfront property for a third of what you could get in Canada,” Hayton says. Zillow, for example, shows a Point Roberts three-bedroom home available for $700,000, but across the border, there’s almost nothing below $2 million.

Now, those benefits are dwindling. In response to the Trump tariffs, Canada announced 25% tariffs on certain goods from the U.S. For Hayton’s customers, that means after they buy $100 worth of groceries, they get to the border crossing and are told to pay another $25. “So they come back to the store and return all their groceries,” she says. “Would you want to pay 25% on your grocery bill every month?” Along with groceries and medicines, Neil King, who runs a gift shop called Kora’s Corner, says there have even been reports of people stopped at the border and “facing tariffs on items like half-eaten burritos.”

The geographic oddities that once made Point Roberts so special are now hurting locals. “We’re the most unique spot in North America. We’re the uniquest of the unique,” says Brian Calder, a fourth-generation resident and a former president of the local Chamber of Commerce. Yet neither border agents or politicians “give us a unique solution,” he adds. (The Point to Point Parcel Post is owned by his niece, Beth Calder, who was born on Point Roberts.)

An Uncertain Future

Both Henson and Hayton note the stress they feel, as business owners, to support other members of their community; they each have employees counting on them for their paychecks. Calder, meanwhile, is the chair of the local Dollars for Scholars program, a nonprofit that raises scholarship funds for students so they can get an education.

The majority of Point Roberts residents are seniors—it has a median age of 55.7 years old—but there are still a handful of kids and young adults. To Calder, that scholarship program is one of the only chances young residents have to make something of themselves away from the peninsula, especially as Point Roberts now faces extreme uncertainty. “Otherwise they’ll be working at a parcel post or gas station the rest of their lives, because that’s all we’ve got left,” he says. 

Calder has taken up the rallying cry of Point Roberts amid President Trump’s comments. He’s written letters to the British Columbia provincial premier and to Washington state legislators. He has tracked the decline in border crossings from Canada into the U.S. He has spoken to the media, and been a figure of support for locals like Hansen. He “has really been my savior in all of this,” she says, “because he’s getting the word out to the Canadians not to forget about us.”

‘We have absolutely been abandoned’

That idea of being forgotten—or deserted, especially by U.S. lawmakers.—resonates with most Point Roberts residents and business owners. “We absolutely have been abandoned,” Calder says. “And there’s no thought to how to solve it, insulate us, mitigate it.” If relations with Canada worsen, Calder fears the country will retaliate by cutting off water and electricity to Point Roberts. “If they close that down as a reaction, as this momentum builds and this anger festers, then literally we’re in the dark and we’re thirsty,” he says. 

Point Roberts also isn’t totally alone. Though it’s in an especially unique situation, its struggles highlight issues every border town is facing—and reveal the importance of maintaining alliances with neighbors like Canada. “Allies and neighbors are essential for economic stability and community well-being,” King says. “Just as it takes a village to raise a child, nations thrive through cooperation and mutual support. Our longstanding positive relationship with Canada has been beneficial, and preserving it is crucial for both sides of the border.”

Point Roberts residents and business owners do understand why Canadians would boycott the U.S. or avoid trips across the border; they don’t fault them. “It’s not their job to fix our problem, because we are an American town, Hayton says. “It is our administration—they have taken away my ability to survive as an employer.” Calder notes that its thanks to the “goodwill and generosity” of Canadians over the years that Point Roberts has survived so far. 

And some Canadians have still been trying to support Point Roberts, even amid the tensions. Hensen says she has had some Canadian customers come to her café to support her, “which has given me hope.” King says Canadians “express apologies and sympathies but are hesitant to visit.” Many are concerned because the Trump administration has begun detaining some European travelers; a Canadian entrepreneur even said she was arrested by ICE while trying to obtain a new visa.

It’s the unknowns—of how things may worsen, what Trump will do next, and how Canadians will respond—that make things so difficult for Point Roberts. “It’s hard to believe it’s only been two months [since the Trump administration began] because of the impact it’s had . . . There are no winners,” Calder says. “God forbid another two months.”