US to reopen land borders in November for fully vaccinated
By ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press
Posted:
Updated:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will reopen its land borders to nonessential travel next month, ending a 19-month freeze due to the COVID-19 pandemic as the country moves to require all international visitors to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Vehicle, rail and ferry travel between the U.S. and Canada and Mexico has been largely restricted to essential travel, such as trade, since the earliest days of the pandemic. The new rules, announced Wednesday, will allow fully vaccinated foreign nationals to enter the U.S. regardless of the reason for travel starting in early November, when a similar easing of restrictions is set to kick in for air travel into the country. By mid-January, even essential travelers seeking to enter the U.S., like truck drivers, will need to be fully vaccinated.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said he was “pleased to be taking steps to resume regular travel in a safe and sustainable manner” and lauded the economic benefits of it.
Both Mexico and Canada have pressed the U.S. for months to ease restrictions on travel that have separated families and curtailed leisure trips since the onset of the pandemic. The latest move follows last month’s announcement that the U.S. will end country-based travel bans for air travel and instead require vaccination for foreign nationals seeking to enter by plane.
Senior administration officials had previewed the new land border policy late Tuesday. Both policies will take effect in early November, the officials said.
The new rules only apply to legal entry to the U.S. Officials cautioned that those seeking to enter illegally will still be subject to expulsion under so-called Title 42 authority, first invoked by former President Donald Trump, that has drawn criticism from immigration advocates for swiftly removing migrants before they can seek asylum. One of the officials said the U.S. was continuing the policy because cramped conditions in border patrol facilities pose a COVID-19 threat.
Travelers entering the U.S. by vehicle, rail and ferry will be asked about their vaccination status as part of the standard U.S. Customs and Border Protection admissions process. At officers’ discretion, travelers will have their proof of vaccination verified in a secondary screening process.
Unlike air travel, for which proof of a negative COVID-19 test is required before boarding a flight to enter the U.S., no testing will be required to enter the U.S. by land or sea, provided the travelers meet the vaccination requirement.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. will accept travelers who have been fully vaccinated with any of the vaccines approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization, not just those in use in the U.S. That means that the AstraZeneca vaccine, widely used in Canada, will be accepted.
Officials said the CDC was still working to formalize procedures for admitting those who received doses of two different vaccines, as was fairly common in Canada.
The delay in the vaccination requirement for essential cross-border travel is meant to provide truck drivers and others with additional time to get a shot and minimize potential economic disruption from the vaccination mandate, officials said.
All told, the new procedures move toward a policy based on the risk profiles of individuals, rather than less targeted country-based bans.
The vaccination requirement for foreign nationals comes as the White House has moved to impose sweeping vaccination-or-testing requirements affecting as many as 100 million people in the U.S. in an effort to encourage holdouts to get shots.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Labor completed the initial draft of an emergency regulation that will require employers of 100 workers or more to demand their employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 or tested weekly. The Office of Management and Budget is now reviewing the order before its implementation.
The move toward restoring regular travel comes as COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have dropped to about 85,000 per day, the lowest level since July, following a spike from the more transmissible delta variant of the virus. Per capita case rates in Canada and Mexico have been been markedly lower in the two countries than the U.S. for the duration of the pandemic, which amplified frustrations about the U.S. restrictions on travel.
Mexico has not put in place any COVID-19 entry procedures for travelers. Canada allows entry of fully-vaccinated individuals with proof of vaccination against COVID-19 as well as proof of a negative test conducted within 72 hours of entry to the country.
Brendan Kiley
You can get them at major transit hubs (SkyTrain stations, etc.) or at a London Drugs store or at 7-Eleven. Start taking the buses and trains right away. You’ll save money, see more of the city and, in the long run, save yourself some time. (But, of course, reserve the right to a Lyft or Uber now and then.)
Brendan Kiley
You can get them at major transit hubs (SkyTrain stations, etc.) or at a London Drugs store or at 7-Eleven. Start taking the buses and trains right away. You’ll save money, see more of the city and, in the long run, save yourself some time. (But, of course, reserve the right to a Lyft or Uber now and then.)
The vigil at Robson Square, which has since made headlines around the world, began on May 28, when Vancouver artist Tamara Bell (Haida) placed 215 pairs of children’s shoes on the steps of Vancouver Art Gallery to memorialize 215 Indigenous children whose unmarked mass grave had been discovered at a Catholic-run residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
That discovery, and those shoes, have unlatched a deep, ongoing national conversation about the horrors of residential schools and the history of colonialism in Canada. (Where in the U.S. you might see “Black Lives Matter” on T-shirts or sidewalks, in Vancouver you’ll see “Every Child Matters” — no relation to the “All Lives Matter” subversion of BLM.) Those stone steps on Robson Square, which used to be the steps of a courthouse, have become an ongoing vigil where people show up, talk, drum, cry or stand silently. It’s not a “fun” tourist diversion for gawking and photos — but, at the moment, is arguably one of the most important things to see in Vancouver.
You can learn more about the city’s original inhabitants, particularly the Musqueam, at a Museum of Vancouver (1100 Chestnut St.) exhibition titled “c̓əsnaʔəm: The City Before the City.”
Brendan Kiley
The vigil at Robson Square, which has since made headlines around the world, began on May 28, when Vancouver artist Tamara Bell (Haida) placed 215 pairs of children’s shoes on the steps of Vancouver Art Gallery to memorialize 215 Indigenous children whose unmarked mass grave had been discovered at a Catholic-run residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
That discovery, and those shoes, have unlatched a deep, ongoing national conversation about the horrors of residential schools and the history of colonialism in Canada. (Where in the U.S. you might see “Black Lives Matter” on T-shirts or sidewalks, in Vancouver you’ll see “Every Child Matters” — no relation to the “All Lives Matter” subversion of BLM.) Those stone steps on Robson Square, which used to be the steps of a courthouse, have become an ongoing vigil where people show up, talk, drum, cry or stand silently. It’s not a “fun” tourist diversion for gawking and photos — but, at the moment, is arguably one of the most important things to see in Vancouver.
You can learn more about the city’s original inhabitants, particularly the Musqueam, at a Museum of Vancouver (1100 Chestnut St.) exhibition titled “c̓əsnaʔəm: The City Before the City.”
At first, this neighborhood will confuse you with its pleasantly startling mix of cuisines, ethnicities and income brackets — that’s a good thing. In just a few blocks, you’ll pass places advertising injera, sushi, tandoori, mezcal, Italian coffee, samosas, Cuban sandwiches and Vietnamese food both upscale and down-home. Upscale pet accessory stores live next to well-worn used bookshops; some people on the street look like they have a lot of money, others look like they don’t have much. Andy Yan, an urban planner with Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, says this coexistence is explained by gentrification in slow motion. Commercial Drive was an Italian stronghold, then a multiethnic neighborhood, and is now attracting the “bobos” (bourgeois bohemians). But, due to a variety of factors — including the place being cut up into small parcels of land, which makes it difficult and expensive to develop condos, etc. — the old parts of the neighborhood are holding out against big development.
Places to eat: Lunch Lady (1046 Commercial Drive), an exquisitely good second-generation Vietnamese place; La Grotta del Formaggio (1791 Commercial Drive) for stellar Italian sandwiches; and old-school, anti-pretentious Joe’s Cafe (1150 Commercial Drive) for a great neighborhood cappuccino. The samosas at Sweet Cherubim (1105 Commercial Drive) are rumored to be excellent, but I didn’t have room to try one.
Brendan Kiley
At first, this neighborhood will confuse you with its pleasantly startling mix of cuisines, ethnicities and income brackets — that’s a good thing. In just a few blocks, you’ll pass places advertising injera, sushi, tandoori, mezcal, Italian coffee, samosas, Cuban sandwiches and Vietnamese food both upscale and down-home. Upscale pet accessory stores live next to well-worn used bookshops; some people on the street look like they have a lot of money, others look like they don’t have much. Andy Yan, an urban planner with Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, says this coexistence is explained by gentrification in slow motion. Commercial Drive was an Italian stronghold, then a multiethnic neighborhood, and is now attracting the “bobos” (bourgeois bohemians). But, due to a variety of factors — including the place being cut up into small parcels of land, which makes it difficult and expensive to develop condos, etc. — the old parts of the neighborhood are holding out against big development.
Places to eat: Lunch Lady (1046 Commercial Drive), an exquisitely good second-generation Vietnamese place; La Grotta del Formaggio (1791 Commercial Drive) for stellar Italian sandwiches; and old-school, anti-pretentious Joe’s Cafe (1150 Commercial Drive) for a great neighborhood cappuccino. The samosas at Sweet Cherubim (1105 Commercial Drive) are rumored to be excellent, but I didn’t have room to try one.
Yes, it looks dauntingly far away on the map, but you won’t regret it. The MOA is like the Burke Museum times a thousand (including window-walls where you can watch conservators at work) and its collection of First Nations artwork is like nothing you’ve ever seen: the mammoth, storytelling house posts; the startling expressions on the carved-wood faces; the intricately made, rowboat-size “house dishes,” used to serve food and gifts at potlatches, some of them linked like train cars. And works by contemporary First Nations artists stand alongside the objects from other centuries, striking the idea that the collection is “artifacts” from “vanished” cultures. Then there are the stacks, crammed with objects from around the world: sculptures made from abandoned fishing nets near Papua New Guinea; Minoan and Grecian clay figurines; intricate wood carvings from Tanzania; samurai armor; carved Peruvian gourds; Kurentovanje carnival costumes from Slovenia; a full-size woven motorcycle from Java … a ticket to the MOA is like a passport to walk through a library of other people’s dreams.
Brendan Kiley
Yes, it looks dauntingly far away on the map, but you won’t regret it. The MOA is like the Burke Museum times a thousand (including window-walls where you can watch conservators at work) and its collection of First Nations artwork is like nothing you’ve ever seen: the mammoth, storytelling house posts; the startling expressions on the carved-wood faces; the intricately made, rowboat-size “house dishes,” used to serve food and gifts at potlatches, some of them linked like train cars. And works by contemporary First Nations artists stand alongside the objects from other centuries, striking the idea that the collection is “artifacts” from “vanished” cultures. Then there are the stacks, crammed with objects from around the world: sculptures made from abandoned fishing nets near Papua New Guinea; Minoan and Grecian clay figurines; intricate wood carvings from Tanzania; samurai armor; carved Peruvian gourds; Kurentovanje carnival costumes from Slovenia; a full-size woven motorcycle from Java … a ticket to the MOA is like a passport to walk through a library of other people’s dreams.
That’s another neighborhood where a lot is happening. Stop by Massy Books (229 E. Georgia St.), which is lovely, dense, intelligently curated and Indigenous-owned. Hang around long enough for someone to open the secret door to its rare books collection, then go upstairs to see their current gallery exhibition. Also take a peek at Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. If you’re lucky, Joyce Tan will be there giving lessons on the guzheng (a 21-string zither) and you’ll learn how to pluck “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” on an unfamiliar instrument tuned to a pentatonic scale.
Places to eat: Enjoy some bao at New Town Bakery (148 E. Pender St.), noodles at Fat Mao Noodles (217 E. Georgia St.) and the butter beef (on the raw side, like a carpaccio) or hot and sour soup with prawns at longtime institution Phnom Penh Restaurant (244 E. Georgia St.). Zoomak Korean Tavern (52 Alexander St.) has great sampler platters of their various dishes at lunchtime.
Brendan Kiley
That’s another neighborhood where a lot is happening. Stop by Massy Books (229 E. Georgia St.), which is lovely, dense, intelligently curated and Indigenous-owned. Hang around long enough for someone to open the secret door to its rare books collection, then go upstairs to see their current gallery exhibition. Also take a peek at Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. If you’re lucky, Joyce Tan will be there giving lessons on the guzheng (a 21-string zither) and you’ll learn how to pluck “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” on an unfamiliar instrument tuned to a pentatonic scale.
Places to eat: Enjoy some bao at New Town Bakery (148 E. Pender St.), noodles at Fat Mao Noodles (217 E. Georgia St.) and the butter beef (on the raw side, like a carpaccio) or hot and sour soup with prawns at longtime institution Phnom Penh Restaurant (244 E. Georgia St.). Zoomak Korean Tavern (52 Alexander St.) has great sampler platters of their various dishes at lunchtime.
That zone can feel a little generic, another downtown PaneraLand, during the day — though there are a few damn good places to eat, like the Japanese izakaya Guu with Garlic (1698 Robson St.) — but it has a different alchemy at night. At worst, you’ll see the hubbub of life in an unfamiliar city. At best, you’ll find something you couldn’t have planned, like that b-boy/b-girl cypher you stumbled across outside the doors to the Provincial Courthouse of British Columbia, in an underground plaza just beneath Robson Square.
Around 40 people were in a circle — Asian, Indigenous, Black, white — dance-battling for hours. Someone in the crowd was turning 24 that day and decided to celebrate by challenging his friends to 24 consecutive challenges. It was a scene of enthusiastic energy and happy hollering, not a sour note to be found — and a sign of multiethnic, cosmopolitan hope, just a few steps away from the mourning of the 215-shoe vigil.
Those two events, happening simultaneously, were counterpoints — and proof that more is happening between them, in Vancouver, than you could ever imagine.
Brendan Kiley
That zone can feel a little generic, another downtown PaneraLand, during the day — though there are a few damn good places to eat, like the Japanese izakaya Guu with Garlic (1698 Robson St.) — but it has a different alchemy at night. At worst, you’ll see the hubbub of life in an unfamiliar city. At best, you’ll find something you couldn’t have planned, like that b-boy/b-girl cypher you stumbled across outside the doors to the Provincial Courthouse of British Columbia, in an underground plaza just beneath Robson Square.
Around 40 people were in a circle — Asian, Indigenous, Black, white — dance-battling for hours. Someone in the crowd was turning 24 that day and decided to celebrate by challenging his friends to 24 consecutive challenges. It was a scene of enthusiastic energy and happy hollering, not a sour note to be found — and a sign of multiethnic, cosmopolitan hope, just a few steps away from the mourning of the 215-shoe vigil.
Those two events, happening simultaneously, were counterpoints — and proof that more is happening between them, in Vancouver, than you could ever imagine.
FILE - In this Friday June 15, 2012 file photo, Motorists make their way to Ambassador Bridge connecting Canada to the United States in Windsor, Ontario. The U.S. will reopen its land borders to nonessential travel next month, ending a 19-month freeze due to the COVID-19 pandemic as the country moves to require all international visitors to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The new rules, to be announced Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021 will allow fully vaccinated foreign nationals to enter the U.S. regardless of the reason for travel (Mark Spowart/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
Mark Spowart
FILE - In this Friday June 15, 2012 file photo, Motorists make their way to Ambassador Bridge connecting Canada to the United States in Windsor, Ontario. The U.S. will reopen its land borders to nonessential travel next month, ending a 19-month freeze due to the COVID-19 pandemic as the country moves to require all international visitors to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. The new rules, to be announced Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021 will allow fully vaccinated foreign nationals to enter the U.S. regardless of the reason for travel (Mark Spowart/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
