Visiting An Unsupervised Easily Crossable Border Between Canada-USA – Roxham Road

Introduction

The south of Roxham Road is an unofficial border between Canada and USA. Unlike regular border services agencies, it has no established customs station on either Canadian or American territory. Therefore, there are no staff or guards overseeing cars, pedestrians or cyclists crossing it. For many years, this small path has been the subject of controversy, because of illegal crossings. It was and is still a gateway for asylum seekers and refugees to enter Canada without having to go through tight security and background checks. It could technically also be a gateway for any Canadian to enter the US illegally for whatever reason. This then prompted the federal government to tighten security around the place in an attempt to control illegal migration. If you look it up on Google Maps (or on any online map) you will not see it being labelled as a border agency, but rather just as dead end roads. For anyone unfamiliar with the location, it might not be obvious that it is still a relatively open access path to Canada or the USA if one wanted to get across in either country illegally. Over the years, many articles and short films covered by large news media outlets have emerged showing how the flux of refugees has become an important issue at that spot:

A quick search on YouTube after typing the keywords “Roxham Road” will reveal a ton of footage from refugees and asylum seekers and also from security guards within the area. That is how serious of a topic it has become.

Initially, I was quite shocked to find out about it, because it was so close to where I lived and nothing major was really going on next to it over the years I have been there (nothing major that I have been aware of). I have been cycling literally ON Roxham Road and in its surrounding area during the summer and I never noticed anything suspicious.

So I told myself:

Will I encounter people attempting to cross if I went there? What would I do if did?

Living in the rural area makes it very convenient for me to get there by bicycle. And so I embarked on my bicycle and 1 hour and a half, 28.5 km and 459 calories spent later, here is what happened…

The Moment Of Truth

As soon as I arrived, to my surprise, the place was just…EMPTY. There were no guards, no local police officers, no military, no helicopters, no police dogs or no border staff. From far away, it looked like it was just an small building store with a parking space and not much. It basically looked like this:

Entrance

I thought there would be larger concrete barriers and long metal fences with barbed wires on top to make it impossible to cross, but there were none of those. The road leading directly to that the place has some residential houses that look just as normal as ones in any rural villages. It did not have the vibe of a forbidden area and nothing visibly obvious about it seemed to suggest it is a topic of major controversy. Honestly, if someone even crossed illegally, they would go unnoticed by the villagers from Canada and USA, because it is really quiet. I thought I would be stopped and arrested by hidden guards at some point especially as I got closer, but nope. I cycled around the small house to get around the parking space and here’s what it looked like (right side of the house):

The house can further be circled on its left and immediately behind it you will encounter a conveniently walkable gravel path to cross freely over the United States (or vice versa to Canada). Vehicles can’t get through though because it is not wide enough and there are some small concrete barricades. However, pedestrians and cyclists can. Take a look below:

There were obvious signs though mentioning that you are entering either USA or Canada and there is a small marker delimiting the imaginary line between both territories.

The place is covered with forests and you can also see the stripped land amongst the trees marking once again the border from far away:

I was able to spot a total of seven cameras. However, the entire imaginary border line has constant aerial surveillance even through the forests. They were so well hidden that I could not spot any flying objects despite the clear and sunny sky (how sneaky) :

The closest I could get before trespassing into USA would be right next to the gray post in the picture below (notice the blue fence right next to it showing the hard limit):

Literally one step away from prison, because of an illegal entry to USA 😂

If you are curious to watch an actual footage of the tour, you can check out the following video:

Closing Thoughts

After all the media commotion behind it followed by my solo honest visit , what did I think? Well, although it was not as hectically crowded as portrayed in the media, the sight was pretty and touching. I have to admit that it was SOO tempting to cross the border, because of how easy it looked. It was so open and the other side looked so cool to cycle around too. It felt constraining and I did not like the feeling of not being allowed to simply walk on the other side. It was the first time I felt such emotion. It felt frustrating to have my freedom held back against me. On the other hand, luckily, I did not encounter anyone trying to cross illegally. I wonder what I would have done if I did though. With all the cameras there, I would have undeniably been a witness and could face some jail time or high fines for not reporting it. However, if they were refugees seeking shelter and a better life, it would have been hard for me to live with the fact that I was the person to shatter their hopes. The dilemma is also not knowing if they were criminals too. Man it would have sucked to be in that position on the spot for the whole world to witness my character. You never truly get to know who you are until you are confronted with harsh realities right? I felt a bit emotional knowing people have been through that road. For a lot of them and their families, it was either a path to freedom or to jail. I could not fathom how lucky I was to just stand there and have so much liberty walking around never fearing for my security. It also made me wonder how do people find out about this kind of place? The border between Canada and USA spans approximately 8 890 km so it is hard to imagine how can someone know this small area amongst such vast territory. No matter where they come from down south, did they decide to travel north purposely heading there? Definitely, something to ponder about! On another note, I highly discourage anyone from taking advantage of that area to just hop over the border secretly. Like the signs said, you could face huge fines or get arrested on either territory. In the end, I felt grateful and satisfied from learning and experiencing the emotions I described. I was very curious about it and I could not help myself, but to get there on my own and see it for what it is. Follow me on Instagram to check out all of the pictures. I will keep exploring more places like these so more to come!

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