Southbound border crossings into Blaine down three percent from last year

In October 2019, the most recent month with available data, 645,299 people crossed the border southbound into Blaine. That’s about 3.3 percent less than the same month in 2018, when 667,505 crossed southbound into Blaine.

Southbound crossings into Blaine at Peace Arch and Pacific Highway have been lower every month this year than last, though by just a few percent.

“The numbers always differ from year to year somewhat, but there does seem to be a trend for 2019 being consistently lower than 2018,” said Laurie Trautman, director of Western Washington University’s Border Policy Research Institute.

The exchange rate, a common factor in the number of Canadian’s crossing into the U.S. in the past, changed little since October 2018. Trautman noted that there have been some high profile news articles recently about Canadians being banned from entering the U.S.

CBC reported on December 4 that between October 2018 and September 2019, the number of Canadians hit with long-term bans when trying to enter the U.S. nearly doubled when compared to the previous 12-month period.