Is entering the USA at Hyder, AK actually legal, or only tolerated?
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 23 Jul, 2023
- |
The US really treats Hyder as part of Canada in a lot of ways. Even its flights to US airports are considered to be international flights.
Aside from by air, or by a dangerous overland journey through the mountains, there is nowhere to go from Hyder except to Canada, so on a practical level, there is no need for border inspection. Few foreigners go there, except perhaps for some international or Canadian visitors who want to tick off the “I’ve been to Alaska” box or buy some American beer. In fact, the town gets its telephone service and utilities from Canadian providers.
The question of whether people banned from the US are allowed to visit is interesting. My instinct is that they are still banned, but that no one would find out so the odds of harm resulting are slim to none. And, as has always been the case, if someone wants to go from Hyder to another point in the U.S. by land or air, they will have to report to a US Customs and Border Protection inspection station. (That was true in the days when many crossings on the Canada-US border were unmanned; people were supposed to cross and go to the nearest inspection site voluntarily. That didn’t always happen, obviously, which is why we now have manned crossings.)
It’s an interesting little quirk in North American geography.
Another quirk is the Northwest Angle on the Manitoba border – only accessible by water from the US. It has customs inspection, but by video terminal.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘