North Dakota Law Review Volume 85 Number 2 Article 3 1-1-2009 The Canadian Indian Free Passage Right: The Last Stronghold of Explicit Race Restriction in United States Immigration Law Paul Spruhan Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/ndlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Spruhan, Paul (2009) "The Canadian Indian Free Passage Right: The Last Stronghold of Explicit Race Restriction in United States Immigration Law," North Dakota Law Review: Vol. 85 : No. 2 , Article 3. Available at: https://commons.und.edu/ndlr/vol85/iss2/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in North Dakota Law Review by an authorized editor of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE CANADIAN INDIAN FREE PASSAGE RIGHT: THE LAST STRONGHOLD OF EXPLICIT RACE RESTRICTION IN UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION LAW PAUL SPRUHAN∗ I. INTRODUCTION Peter Roberts had a problem. A Canadian citizen and a member of the Campbell River Band of Canadian Indians,1 Roberts regularly crossed the United States-Canada border to visit his property in Point Roberts, Wash- ington.2 He had a “green card,” and had been crossing the border since he was a young boy with his family to visit relatives on the Lummi Indian Reservation.3 In 2007, however, immigration officials confiscated his green card and required him to appear in an immigration court.4 The issue was whether he had enough Indian “blood” to cross the border as a Cana- dian Indian entitled to free passage into the United States.5 Roberts has fair skin and curly hair inherited from his Ukrainian mother, but the facial fea- tures of his Indian father.6 Roberts asserted that his physical appearance caused immigration officials to question his right to free passage.7 Both American and Canadian press reports emphasized the curious racial aspect ∗Assistant Attorney General, Navajo Nation Department of Justice, Window Rock, Arizona.