border visit december 22, 2019

Sunday, December 22nd, 2019. Afternoon at Roxham Road, USA.

We arrived at Roxham at 3:25 this afternoon. There was not a soul in sight. At approximately 3:50 pm  a professor from SUNY university in Plattsburgh and a photojournalist arrived just ahead of Laura's Taxi, delivering a family of 5 from Nigeria.

The family comprised a couple with an adolescent girl and two younger boys. They were wearing hats and gloves but accepted tuques and some more gloves since what they were wearing didn't fit very well. They had lots of luggage that the driver helped them with.

Shortly after the first arrival a second taxi brought a couple with a baby in a stroller. We had no chance to interact with them as we were busy handing out the extra hats etc to the first group. They went straight to the crossing and quickly went over on the heels of the first group. 

The last group arrived shortly after 4pm  and consisted of a couple with two children: a little boy who was not more than 2 and a baby in a stroller who was 2 months old. This family was not as well dressed as the previous two and the woman said they were from the US. They spoke French and English and it seemed likely they were Haitian. They too gladly accepted hats and mitts for the kids and gloves for the mother.

This group hesitated after listening to the RCMP but  we didn't hear exactly what was said. We think they were a bit confused by the officer. Finally they crossed over.  In total 12 people crossed into Canada today - 6 adults and 6 children.  We left just before 5 pm.