July 29, 2026, 5:10 a.m. ET
STANSTEAD, Canada ‒ A library astride the U.S.-Canada border has seen a surge in interest from curious visitors after President Donald Trump‘s administration ended a 122-year-old tradition and began requiring Canadian visitors to use the back door.
Built on the border in 1904 as a symbol of international friendship, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House historically allowed both Americans and Canadians to enter via the front door on the U.S. side of the border. Canadians were allowed to use that door without first passing through a border checkpoint a block away.
Among those visiting on a recent day was Canadian tourist Trevor Vanderwier, 39, a cabinetmaker on vacation with his wife Emily and six kids. Traveling in their RV, the family was headed home to the Niagara Falls area after a summer trip. Vanderwier said they heard about the library via the World Watch news service.
“They explained how you can cross the border legally without a passport as long as you stay in the building,” Vanderwier said. “We thought, ‘It sounds super cool.‘“
Vanderwier’s family was among a steady stream of visitors on a recent weekday around a two-week Canadian “construction holiday” period. By 3 p.m. on July 16, library staff reported about 150 visitors.
The new library entrance is one of the latest examples of how Trump is redefining America’s relationship with Canada.
On July 20, the president announced a new round of tariffs on imported Canadian goods, from dairy products to alcohol and hockey equipment. Trump has also refused to renew the existing U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement he struck in 2018, arguing the deal favors Canada too much. The president also complained recent Canadian wildfires were “poisoning” the United States and threatened to seek damages.
British Columbia Premier David Eby responded: “At this point, I just feel sorry for Americans. If you’re picking fights with Canadians, then you don’t have a friend in the world.”
A hardened border now cuts off side roads that once linked Stanstead and Derby Line, a community located in Vermont. U.S. Border Patrol agents and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police keep tabs on anyone getting close to the line separating the countries.
Last year, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem further tightened the border when she told library officials that Canadians would have to start using a separate door from their side. Noem then offended Canadians by jumping back and forth over the border line on the library floor, while joking about Canada becoming the 51st U.S. state. Trump has repeatedly talked about annexing Canada, including as recently as July 14 in a social media post.
“People get a lot of anxiety about it because Trump keeps talking about it,” said Karine Cantin, owner of the Auberge Le Sunshine bakery on the Stanstead side of the border. “They want to tell Trump we do not agree with this. It’s why a lot of Canadians don’t go (to the United States) now. It’s a political choice.”
Canadian tourist visits to Vermont have dropped 40% since Trump retook the White House, state officials said.
Meanwhile, the number of Canadians returning from the United States in February was 1.1 million – a drop of 13% from 1.27 million in February 2025.
Canadian and Vermont officials unveiled the Haskell library’s new Canadian entrance last month, saying they hope the building remains a bastion of international friendship.
“Canadians didn’t choose Donald Trump, and neither did Vermonters. But we do get to choose our friends,” Vermont state Treasurer Mike Pieciak said in a statement. “At a time when Washington is needlessly straining relations with Canada, this new entrance sends a simple message: Vermont’s friendship with Canada predates Donald Trump, and it will endure long after his presidency.”
Inside the library, materials are offered in French and English, and the flags of both the United States and Canada are prominently displayed. The American side of the library sits in Derby Line, while the Canadian side sits in Stanstead.
No physical barrier blocks people from walking across the border outside the library, although planters prevent vehicles from crossing, and border guards from both countries keep watch.
Visitors can browse the stacks or attend upstairs opera performances without worrying about the border line taped on the floor. However, they are required to leave from the door they entered.
Signs also warn people not to hold meetings or cross-border reunions, which the Trump administration cited as a concern. In 2018, a Canadian man pleaded guilty to smuggling guns into Canada via the library by collecting bags of pistols stashed inside the bathroom by his American partners.
The tightening of the library rules reflects the greater restrictions faced by community members who for generations treated the border as little more than an imaginary line.
Pat Boisvert has lived on the American side for all of his 86 years, and remembers as a kid running across Canusa Street to visit friends ‒ a street that he’s now supposed to get permission to cross.
“We’d roam all over the town and nobody cared,” said Boisvert, a Vermonter who flies a Canadian flag from his house and a U.S. one from his adjacent workshop.
Pointing with his crutch, Boisvert showed the Canadian border post he’s now supposed to check in with before walking across the street. He said he hopes Canada and the United States can one day rebuild the close relationship he remembers from childhood.
The border began tightening in advance of the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics, and tightened again after 9/11. Trump restricted things more during his first term, and then again upon retaking the White House in 2025.
Trump has said Canada needs to stop unlawful migration and drug-trafficking. In contrast, Boisvert said he’s inclined to help anyone he sees crossing the border in search of a better life.
“If I did see someone coming across, I wouldn’t call Border Patrol,” he said. “I’d keep my mouth shut or probably give them directions.”
On the Canadian side, Cantin, the bakery owner, said she’s seen little evidence the border needs to be harder to cross. She said she’s occasionally seen harmless-looking people wandering into town and appearing lost, and presumed they had crossed illegally from the United States.
She said the new library entrance seems like a waste of money, given that people from both sides can still enter without formally crossing the border.
“We were so sad ‒ It’s like the same village but now it’s not,” she said. “But nobody wants to be the 51st state.”
