A Canadian woman living in Point Roberts, Wash., died at home after refusing hospital care because she was afraid she wouldn’t be allowed back into the United States, according to her son.
Paige Adamson was 61. Her death was reported to the Whatcom County Medical Examiner on Oct. 18, just weeks after U.S. border officers held her for six hours and questioned her about voting in an American election.
She was scheduled to appear in immigration court in Seattle on Nov. 4 to fight deportation.
Her official cause of death hasn’t been released.
What her son says happened
Her son, Dylan Adamson, lives in B.C. He told The Canadian Press that his mother fell at home in the days before she died.
He said paramedics saw her and recommended she go to hospital, but she signed a form declining further care. He believes she would have gone if she hadn’t been afraid of what would happen at the border.
He also told CP she’d been struggling with dental problems that made it hard to eat, and that she looked frail the last time he saw her. He said he only learned about the fall from a firefighter who attended after her death.
“Won’t be able to come back”
Her neighbour describes the same fear.
On the Thursday before she died, Adamson called Annelle Norman, a neighbour and community support officer in Point Roberts, to borrow crutches. Norman told CBC News she found Adamson in severe pain after a fall.
Norman urged her to call paramedics or go to the local clinic. Adamson told her she was afraid she “won’t be able to come back.”
Norman checked on her over the weekend. She hadn’t improved.
Why a hospital meant crossing the border twice
Point Roberts is a small piece of the United States at the tip of the Tsawwassen peninsula, south of Vancouver. There’s no road to the rest of Washington state. The only way out by land is through Canada.
The community has a small clinic, but no hospital. Adamson’s regular doctor was in Bellingham. Getting there meant driving into B.C., then crossing back into the U.S.
Hugh Wilson, a Point Roberts resident who knew her, told Cascadia Daily News she avoided even the local clinic, afraid it would lead to a referral across the border.
Six hours at the border
Adamson had lived legally in Point Roberts for about 14 years. She was a Canadian citizen with a U.S. green card.
On Sept. 15, she was coming home from a birthday dinner in Tsawwassen when U.S. border officers held her for about six hours. She later said they asked whether she had ever voted in a U.S. election.
The next day, the Department of Homeland Security issued her a notice to appear in immigration court.
Why she was facing deportation
DHS alleged that Adamson falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen when she registered to vote on Sept. 12, 2018, and that she voted in the Nov. 6, 2018 election. These were civil immigration allegations, not criminal charges.
Green card holders can’t vote in U.S. federal or state elections. Falsely claiming citizenship can lead to deportation.
Adamson told Cascadia Daily News in September that she didn’t remember voting in U.S. elections. The paper reported that Washington state voter records show she voted in past elections, including the 2020 presidential primary.
Those records don’t show whether she knowingly claimed to be a citizen. The case never got to court.
“She was a prisoner in Point Roberts”
Len Saunders, an immigration lawyer in Blaine, Wash., knew Adamson’s case but wasn’t representing her.
He says he and others urged her to get treatment. She told him she was afraid she’d be held at the border for hours and sent to the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma.
“She was a prisoner in Point Roberts,” Saunders said.
He says she had every right to leave and return while her case was pending, but border officers could still have detained her. He says she had no criminal convictions, and called her death “an absolute worst case outcome.”
Saunders says about six other Canadians in Washington state are facing deportation over similar voting allegations.
There’s no evidence border officers would have detained Adamson if she’d crossed for care. But according to everyone who knew her, the fear was real to her.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection hadn’t responded to requests for comment.
A border that feels different now
Adamson’s case comes as relations between Canada and the U.S. are at one of their lowest points in decades.
The two countries are in a trade war. The U.S. has put 50% tariffs on a range of Canadian goods since talks broke down in August, and President Donald Trump has repeatedly said Canada should become the 51st state. At a Kansas rally on Oct. 19, he joked that Canadians could keep hockey and O Canada if it did. Read what Trump said in Kansas.
Americans’ views of Canada have shifted too. An AP-NORC poll in September found just 26% of Americans now call Canada a close ally, down from 62% in 2023. Trump has said Canada is “being taught a little lesson.” Read more about the poll.
Even a former president has weighed in. “I’m tired of treating our allies like they’re dirt,” Bill Clinton said at a Florida campaign event this week. Read what Clinton said.
At the border itself, scrutiny of non-citizens has increased. Cascadia Daily News reported that U.S. Customs and Border Protection asked for Whatcom County’s voter file in late August, and that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services asked for Washington’s statewide voter file in early September. Adamson was stopped weeks later.
None of that explains what happened to Adamson specifically. But it’s the backdrop for Canadians living along the border.
What the medical examiner has said
The Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office said Adamson’s death “appeared to be of natural causes” and wasn’t considered suspicious.
The medical examiner’s office is waiting for a forensic pathologist’s examination. Until that’s done, it isn’t known whether the fall, an underlying condition or delayed treatment played a role.
She leaves behind two sons
Adamson’s husband died before her. She is survived by two sons in B.C.
A vigil was planned in Point Roberts in her memory.
She died just over two weeks before her day in court.
Sources
Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office, statement on Paige Adamson’s death, Oct. 2026
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Notice to Appear issued to Paige Adamson, Sept. 16, 2026 (as reported)
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