Niagara Falls, N.Y. (WBEN) - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Congressman Tim Kennedy (NY-26) are addressing an issue commonly referred to as "flagpoling", which is causing unnecessary delays at U.S.-Canadian borders.
The practice of flagpoling is where Canadians arrive at Western New York border crossings asking to renew visas and work permits to skip Canada paperwork delays. They then enter for a few hours and leave.
This is a process that takes Canadians days as opposed to months if they were to submit an application to renew through snail mail.
Schumer is calling upon the Canadian government to close this loophole, and to work with Canadian Border Patrol Services to make the wait times get back to normal, especially in time for summer travel.
"It causes major, major problems at the Rainbow Bridge and the other bridges for travelers going to Niagara Falls," noted Schumer during a press conference in Niagara Falls on Tuesday.
"Because when someone from Canada shows up trying to do this, the applications take at least 30 minutes to process per-person. It takes an agent away from helping others who want to get in visitors who want to get in. It means more traffic at the border, longer wait times and less people who want to travel between the two nations, between the U.S. and Canada."
Schumer explains that in January of this year alone, nearly 2,000 Canadians engaged in flagpoling, randomly showing up at Western New York bridges. In January, over 700 instances of flagpoling occurred at the Rainbow Bridge, over 560 at Peace Bridge, and over 420 at Lewiston Bridge.
According to border protection officials, they fear given current trends 2024 could be the highest year for flagpoling yet, with 12,000 claims already processed just this year across the border and nearly 25,000 claims processed in 2023.
"The Customs Border Protection, have no ability to plan or prepare the loopholes. It spreads them thin and it makes it harder to give a smooth commute for tourism and commerce. That's the lifeblood of our region. And the traffic is often bad now, it's going to get worse over the summer with more tourism and everything else that happens. So we want to stop that from happening right here at the very beginning, the day after Memorial Day," Schumer said.
Schumer said he is urging the Canadian government to stop flagpoling to ensure commerce and tourism can easily flow between Canada and the U.S, boosting trade and both countries' tourist economies. And calling on CBSA to better coordinate with U.S. officials to reduce this unpredictability to keep travel across our shared border flowing smoothly.
