Did COVID doom isolated WA town? State and federal leaders asked to help save it

While McClatchy was in Point Roberts, researchers from the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University were there to interview residents about all impacts of the border closures.

Dr. Laurie Trautman is the director of the program and said that other border areas researchers are studying, such as Windsor or Buffalo, aren’t affected by borders the same way as Point Roberts because it is completely isolated. “This is a community that is completely dependent on a functioning border,” Trautman said. “And that was the real challenge was the border stopped functioning.”