A 61-year-old Point Roberts woman, who was a Canadian citizen and a green card holder, died this month after feeling unwell but fearing she could be detained for allegedly registering to vote in a U.S. election.
The last time Paige Adamson reentered Point Roberts, Whatcom County, from Canada, she was questioned at the border for hours about her voting history. A deportation hearing was scheduled for November. Fearing detention if she tried to cross the border to see her doctor in Bellingham, she chose not to make the trip, according to her son and an attorney she had consulted.
Now, her son is plagued with questions about how a misunderstanding may have cost his mother her life.
“We’re neighbors,” said Dylan Adamson, 37, of British Columbia. “Where’s the accountability?”
'Stuck in the point'
Point Roberts, a cartographical oddity of about 5 square miles of U.S. soil jutting south of British Columbia, requires a border crossing, a drive through Canada, and a second border crossing to reach the mainland United States by car.
Paige Adamson had traveled to Canada on Sept. 15 to celebrate her birthday with friends in Tsawwassen, just north of Point Roberts, said Len Saunders, a Blaine, Whatcom County, immigration lawyer she contacted for advice a month before she died.
Saunders said she was stopped around 8 or 9 p.m. at the border crossing back into the U.S., taken to a room and questioned at length about whether she ever registered to vote or voted in the United States.
After six hours, she was released home with a notice to appear in immigration court for deportation proceedings Nov. 4. The interrogation was nothing like Paige Adamson ever experienced in 14 years living in the Whatcom County exclave, Saunders said.
Her son said she had been injured in a recent fall. She knew she wanted to see a doctor, since she'd been feeling unwell, but she didn't have an easy way to get to her doctor in Bellingham.
So, Saunders said, she felt like she had to make a choice: “Tough it out in Point Roberts and risk her medical condition, or risk being taken to the Northwest Detention Center.”
Saunders suggested she fly or take a boat, but she said she couldn't afford it.
“Two days before she died, the lawyer said, "she'd mentioned to me that it was really inconvenient that she was stuck in the Point, because she'd been stuck there for a month."
Saunders was shocked to learn she died in her home Oct. 18. The Whatcom County medical examiner's office confirmed Saturday she died of blood loss anemia after she fractured her right femur in a fall.
Department of Homeland Security documents allege Paige Adamson “falsely represented herself” by registering to vote and voting in 2018.
“She had impeccable history aside from this one issue,” Saunders said.
'A lot of people’s lives'
Though it’s uncommon, several Washington immigration lawyers said it's possible for green card holders, or legal permanent residents, to accidentally register to vote, for instance while obtaining a driver's license or after a canvasser knocks on their door.
Extreme consequences for voting or registering to vote are new, Saunders said.
“I’ve been doing this for 25 years," he said. "I’ve never seen a Canadian put in deportation proceedings for registering to vote or voting.”
The Trump administration has put an emphasis on cracking down on voter fraud, while often making claims of "rigged" elections, without evidence.
"It’s such an overblown problem," Saunders said.
Paige Adamson, meanwhile, leaves behind two sons. Dylan Adamson hopes something can change so nobody has to feel what he’s feeling now.
“She touched a lot of people’s lives in Point Roberts,” Dylan Adamson said.
In the face of shifting Canadian American relations, he was shocked someone like his mother could have been detained for trying to cross the border.
“We were in the same wars for how many years?” he said. “What’s so bad about us?”
According to a statement from U.S. Customs and Border Protection: If an alien has been found to have voted in a federal election it may lead to refusal of admission or detention pending removal from the United States.”
The agency said noncitizens who register to vote or vote in a U.S. federal election could be denied entry or removed from the country under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
'A really small number of people'
Washington’s Secretary of State’s office regularly checks voter registration records against data from state and federal agencies, to remove people who have died, moved or become ineligible to vote, according to a statement from Helen Smith, a spokesperson for the office.
Under state law, it's a felony to knowingly register to vote without being qualified. But it's not a crime to do so unknowingly. Those who make an honest mistake must deregister and have their voting record cleared.
Lawyers are concerned federal immigration agents are targeting legal permanent residents, like Paige Adamson, who may have registered to vote because of a misunderstanding or an administrative error. Often these residents are elderly, illiterate or disabled.
“I think we’re talking about a really small number of people who never knowingly did anything wrong,” said Vicky Dobrin, a Seattle-based immigration lawyer.
Dobrin has been hearing reports of federal immigration agents visiting homes to question people about their voter status.
A California judge ordered Wednesday that federal agents be barred from visiting homes in nine states to interrogate people about their voter status ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms, claiming the government was referencing “flawed” and “outdated” data that targeted U.S. citizens.
Immigration lawyers also said being able to travel outside the United States is a right maintained by lawful permanent residents.
“It's a huge deal to not be able to travel, to leave the country, when you're not from the United States,” said Natalie Hansen, an attorney with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. “A lot of people have real ties in other countries, and they need to be able to travel.”
© 2026 The Seattle Times. Visit www.seattletimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
