This Canadian border city is building a bridge with the U.S. while Trump raises his wall with Mexico

WINDSOR, Ontario - Elizabeth Jewell gets on the bus in the center of this Canadian city like any commuter, and crosses over to Detroit where she will have lunch with her cousin.

There's no one else on the 2 p.m. bus, nor is there a line at the passport checkpoint at the end of the tunnel that crosses the Detroit River. In half an hour she will have reached her destination.

Windsor is the largest town on the Canadian side of the U.S. border with 200,000 residents. It's so integrated with its neighbor that it is often confused with a Detroit suburb.

"We're very Americanized – the way we talk, our clothes," says Jewell.

Soon it will be even easier to cross from one side to another when a new bridge is built between Windsor and Detroit; the work is expected to begin in 2018.

The new bridge will be named after Gordie Howe, a Canadian ice hockey player who triumphed in the American NHL, and will be yet another connection between the two cities. For decades it’s been possible to cross over using the congested Ambassador Bridge, built in 1929. The tunnel for vehicles was completed a year later, which is the tunnel Jewell travels on by bus. There is also another tunnel for railroads that dates back to 1910.

The Gordie Howe Bridge is on the list of 50 infrastructure works that are a priority for the Trump Administration. Following a meeting last month at the White House, Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a joint statement stating that both countries have a unique relationship as neighbors and that they hoped for "a rapid completion" of the bridge. A building contractor is expected to be chosen this year.

There will of course be those who downplay the importance of gestures such as these, and who will claim that it is mere coincidence that Trump's presidency begins by constructing a bridge with Canada and erecting a wall with Mexico. After all, this bridge was approved by former President Barack Obama and will cost an estimated $2.1 billion, which Canada will pay for.

As in Mexico, many people in Canada fear the impact of Trump's "America First" policies, in particular a renegotiation of the NAFTA free trade agreement or a tax that penalizes imports.

Windsor would be affected more than any other city in Canada by changes in the bilateral relationship, explains Bill Anderson of the Cross-Border Institute at the University of Windsor.

"Much of this city's revenue depends on the U.S., and politics can have a lot of impact on this," Anderson warns.

"The United States has become less attractive"

As is the case with U.S.-Mexican twin cities, like El Paso and Juarez or Laredo and Nuevo Laredo, Windsor and Detroit depend on each other. Canada has no other town along its border close to the size of Windsor.

The trade corridor between Detroit and Windsor has the most commercial traffic between the two countries. On a yearly basis, 2.5 million trucks transport goods worth $75 billion across this border, and Windsor has played an important role in the Detroit auto industry for decades.

About 5,000 Windsor residents cross the border daily to work in and around Detroit. Many in Windsor do their shopping in Detroit or go to NBA or NHL games in the U.S. city. When the Toronto Raptors meet the Detroit Pistons, or the Toronto Maple Leafs the Detroit Red Wings, many claim to support the American team.

Meanwhile, Americans cross over to Windsor to play at Caesars casino or enjoy the Canadian nightlife, taking advantage of the fact that the minimum age for buying alcohol is 18 years old.

Jewell, however, does not display much enthusiasm for the United States, even though she was born there. In the middle of the journey, she makes a surprising confession: she had declined a job offer at a Detroit hospital after Trump's victory. She gave two reasons for this decision: she did not want her daughter educated in a public school during the Trump era, and she did not want to pay more for health coverage that would offer her less than in Canada.

"The United States generally has become less attractive," Jewell sums up.

An hour later, another Canadian passenger on the same commute, Amber Parker, 26, says she knows people in Windsor who have stopped going to the U.S. "For them it's a silent boycott. People who used to go for recreational reasons now avoid crossing," adds Parker, who goes to Detroit a couple of times a week because her American boyfriend lives there. Like Jewell, Parker was the only passenger on the bus.

According to figures provided by Transit Windsor – the company that manages the urban line between the two countries – there has been no drop in the number of commuters since Trump won the presidency. On the contrary, between November 2016 and February of this year there were 65,015 passengers, an increase of almost 500 compared to the same four months of the previous period.

Others affected by Trump's new policies in Windsor are members of the Muslim community, who have a strong presence here as well as across the border in the Detroit Metropolitan area.

Some members from this Muslim community claim that since Trump won they are being subjected to racial discrimination by U.S. border officials. Robert Fahra, a Canadian who emigrated from Iraq 11 years ago, said he and his wife were pulled aside for "no reason."

"I think it was because of my accent," he says.

Fahra claims that he had never before undergone a full security check at the Windsor-Detroit checkpoint.

Amid the confusion caused by Trump's immigration executive order in late January, Windsor's school district canceled all U.S. student trips to avoid "security" problems for students from the seven Muslim-majority countries listed in the ban.

Some of the immigrants living in Windsor say they feel a hospitality here that they do not feel in the U.S.

"Here it is different from the United States, there is respect for diversity," says Syrian-born Canadian Mohamed Kart, who lived three years in Dearborn, Michigan.

They also praise the quality of education and health in Canada.

"It's a privilege to live in Windsor because you have Canadian security and services and at the same time you're so close to the U.S. that you can benefit from leisure and entertainment in Detroit," says Adolfo Delgado, a Cuban who immigrated to Canada 20 years ago. Delgado launched Windsor's first Spanish-language newspaper, La Voz Latina, last year as it saw demand growing in the city’s Hispanic community.

Changes to NAFTA

Among those who are fearful they will lose their jobs in the U.S. is Randy, from Canada, who also commutes on the bus line to Detroit. He works as an architectural designer in Detroit thanks to a special visa for certain jobs under NAFTA.

Following the meeting last month with Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau, Trump said he would make changes to the trade relationship with Canada but added that both countries would benefit.

"The situation is much less severe than the one taking place on the southern border," Trump said referring to Canada.

Randy says that he felt a little calmer after hearing that. "Like me there are those who are worried about what will happen to NAFTA, but what we heard that day reassured us."

Union leader Dino Chiodo is more pessimistic about this new chapter. He says NAFTA has hurt the local car industry and fears that renegotiation will do even more damage.

Windsor was once known as the “capital of the automobile industry in Canada,” but in recent years has suffered from the outsourcing of factory work.

General Motors recently closed a factory that employed about 5,000 people and Ford reduced its workforce from about 7,000 to just 1,500. The only factory that continues to produce without problems is Chrysler, which employs 5,000 workers to assemble its luxury minivan Pacifica.

"NAFTA was supposed to be fair, but we've seen thousands of manufacturing jobs disappear all over Ontario," says Chiodo. "My fear is that now everything can get worse."