A century-old geographic oddity, which straddles the dividing line between the US and Canada, has new rules on how Canadians can enter the cross-border building. The Haskell Free Library and Opera House – located between the US state of Vermont and the Canadian province of Québec – has been told by US Customs and Border Protection that it must change the way Canadians enter the facility. For 121 years, Canadians enjoyed free access to the international library using the front entrance in Derby Line, Vermont without having to go through customs.

However, under the newly installed rules put forth by the Trump administration, only Canadians with a library card are allowed to cross the border, using a new makeshift side entrance – not the front door – to enter the facility. President Donald Trump’s administration announced the sweeping change last week as part of the administration’s continued efforts to crack down ‘a continued rise in illicit cross border activity.’ Starting in the coming days, only Canadian library members and staff will be able to access the library through its front door, Customs and Border Protection said.

As of October 1, all Canadian citizens will have to enter the library from Canadian soil, or go through the nearby port of entry to reach the front door on the US side, the federal agency added. Canadian officials and representatives of the library decried the decision on Friday, as residents of both communities gathered outside the library to express their dismay. ‘I’m embarrassed,’ Penny Thomas of Newport told WBUR, through tears.

‘This has been an institution for decades and it deserves to be the way it has been. We are being inhospitable … We are treating our neighbors in an unconscionable way, and I’m against it.’ ‘Everybody I know is very upset with what’s happening,’ David van Gelder, who has been attending performances at the opera house for 25 years, told the outlet. ‘Though they may have voted the way they did … there’s a little bit of hesitation now.’ During the Friday protest, others could be seen waving to their neighbors across the border.

Americans called ‘We love you, Canada!’ as Canadians called back, ‘We love you, too!’ WBUR reported. Speaking at the Friday event, Canada’s Stanstead Mayor Jody Stone (pictured) mentioned the many facilities and resources the two towns share, including a hockey arena, pickleball courts, a sewer treatment facility and their water source. ‘We have too many reasons to cherish our relationship, and it’s not one man that will change that,’ Stone said.

He urged Americans to continue to stand up for progress and for good relations between the two countries. Stone said the shared access to the library has been a symbol of goodwill between Canada and the United States for more than a century and he hopes it will remain as such. With the Trump administration’s new rules in place, the long-standing library is in dire need of upgrades to help accommodate its Canadian entrants.

Haskell Board of Directors President Sylvie Boudreau (pictured) said upgrading the back entrance to be wheelchair accessible will cost more than $100,000. The library will also need to build a new parking lot and sidewalk, Boudreau added. However, the international facility has said it does not have the funding to make the necessary improvements and has since launched a GoFundMe campaign to help to cover the expenses.

As of Wednesday morning, the fundraiser had far surpassed its $100,000 goal, totaling an astonishing $159,420. A portion of the funds raised, about $50,000, was donated by celebrated author Louise Penny who called the Trump administration’s move ‘shameful, callow, petty.’ ‘[The library] was created as a beacon, a symbol, a physical expression of the friendship between our nations,’ Penny told CBC News.

‘Today, the American government blocked Canadian access to the Haskell, in yet another shameful, callow, petty act by a shameful, callow, petty administration.’ The border-crossing crack down comes just months after US Customs and Border Protection enforced another stern rule on Canadians entering the American side of Peace Arch Park, a park which sits along the Washington-Vancouver border. The Trump administration claims the park enforcement is due to ‘an increase in illegal border crossings around the cross-border park.’

Traditionally, both Americans and Canadians have been able to enter and recreate in both sides of the international park without going through a border crossing, as long as they return to the side they came from. Now, Canadians are now no longer able to enter the park through 0 Avenue in South Surrey – the road that lines Peace Arch Park on the Canadian side, Jason Givens of US Customs and Border Protection, said. They now must go through the Canadian side, and even then, are not permitted past the bathrooms on the American side.

Givens, a public affairs specialist, said if people coming from the Canadian side of the park want to access the ‘upper state park area,’ they must go through the border crossing and be inspected by an agent. Givens said Border Patrol is ‘dedicated to preserving the legacy and traditions of Peace Arch Park while also preventing transnational criminal organizations from exploiting the park to gain illegal entry into the United States.’

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