Thread: The US is over, and 'now it's Canada's turn': Mexican migrants are heading north

The US is over, and 'now it's Canada's turn': Mexican migrants are heading north


A US Border Patrol agent walks with undocumented immigrants after
apprehending them near the US-Mexico border in December 2015, near
Rio Grande City, Texas.John Moore/Getty

REYNOSA, Mexico/TORONTO — Shortly after crossing the Rio Grande into the gang-infested border city of Reynosa, dozens of Mexicans deported during U.S President Donald Trump's first days in office said they would soon try to head north again — but this time to Canada.

In a Reynosa migrant shelter, just yards from the US border, 26-year-old Cenobio Rita said he had earned about $3,000 a month installing playgrounds in Richmond, Virginia, before he was deported on Feb. 15 after police found marijuana in his car.

Having left Mexico as a 14-year-old, he fretted about returning to his violent home state of Michoacan. With Trump taking a tough stance on undocumented immigrants, he ruled out a common path for many deportees — back into the United States.

"I want to go to Canada with my passport," he said. "For those without documents, I think (the United States) is over. Now it's Canada's turn."

As Trump seeks to crack down on undocumented immigrants in the United States, about half of whom are Mexican, there are some nascent signs that more Mexican migrants see a future in Canada, which in December eased travel for visitors from Mexico.

Canadian government data shows that the number of Mexicans seeking to travel to Canada in the three months since the visa requirement was shelved has tripled.

It is not a firm indicator, as many people could be tourists. But tie it to a surge in calls and emails to immigration lawyers from recently arrived Mexicans looking for work permits, as well as the accounts of deportees like Rita and Mexicans already in Canada, and it suggests a new migration pattern may be emerging.

Seven immigration lawyers, consultants and activists told Reuters that requests for legal advice from Mexicans who had entered Canada since Dec. 1 had roughly tripled compared with
the same period in 2015-2016, while Mexico's Canadian consulates are also receiving more requests for help.

Between December and late February, Canada has granted more than 61,500 Electronic Travel Authorization forms, or eTAs, to Mexicans — about triple the number of quarterly tourist applications received in the year before the visa requirement was scrapped, official Canadian data shows. The true scale of Mexican immigration will become fully apparent in June, when early arrivals on these eTAs are due to leave.

Flight bookings from Mexico to Canada also swelled 90 percent in January and February versus the same period in 2016, according to the travel analysis company ForwardKeys, which reviews all major travel agency bookings. It is unclear what percentage of those bookings were made by people looking to work illegally in Canada.

Marcela Gonzalez's telephone and Facebook page may be a good indicator. The immigration paralegal in Toronto used to receive four calls a month from Mexicans in Canada, before Trump's election and the new visa-free travel.

Now she says she gets "four in less than 10 minutes" from people wanting to know how to get work permits and permanent residency.



Gonzalez said 200 Mexicans looking for immigration advice wrote to her on Facebook on a recent day, including parents already in Canada asking her how to enroll their children in local schools.

Mexico's foreign ministry said that it, too, had noticed an uptick.

"Between January and March 2017, our consulates in Canada received more requests for assistance and protection than were seen in the same period of the previous year," it said.

The ministry, which estimated 90,000 Mexicans live in Canada, said it did not think Trump's election win was driving the surge, adding that it was too early to detect a definitive trend.

Canada is closely monitoring "migration trends regarding Mexican travelers to Canada, including asylum claim rates," said Camielle Edwards, a spokeswoman for Ahmed Hussen, the minister for immigration, refugees, and citizenship.

Reuters spoke to about 30 Mexicans in Reynosa who had been deported the previous night. More than half said they wanted to head to Canada. While it is unclear how many will succeed, almost nobody envisaged a future in the United States.

But tough border checks, hard-to-find jobs and fine-tuned enforcement policies mean it can be hard to enter and harder to stay.

In 2015, Victor Avila, a 37-year-old architect from Oaxaca, returned home voluntarily from the United States after five years working illegally in Freehold, New Jersey. Shocked by the low wages in Mexico and traumatized by the murder of his brother there, he applied for an eTA.

Avila arrived in Toronto a few weeks ago and found work in a restaurant. He was in the process of applying for a work visa but said he would stay on illegally for a year if it weren't granted.

"I think for many of us in Canada, there's no other option but to stay and work illegally," he said.



Cautionary tale

Many Mexicans believe the eTA is all they need to set up in Canada, but in almost all cases they are wrong, immigration lawyers said. The eTA does not even guarantee entry.

Even if they get past the airport, many low-skilled Mexicans hoping to work illegally are likely to be disappointed, lawyers said, noting that it's difficult for those entering on tourist visas to get work permits without an employer's sponsorship.

Some Mexican visitors told Reuters that Canadian immigration officials went through their phones and asked tough questions designed to trip up those seeking to stay and work illegally.

While some got through, others were sent home.

Canada says those convicted of crimes, as well as gang members, are inadmissible, making it hard for criminally convicted Mexicans deported from the United States to enter.

Three hundred thirteen Mexicans with eTAs were denied access to Canada in January, according to official Canadian data obtained by Reuters, more than the total number rejected each year in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Alejandro Becerra's experience is a cautionary tale for Mexicans dreaming of a new life in Canada.

The 30-year-old former bank teller from Mexico City got a job offer to work in construction in Toronto and flew to the city on Feb. 7 on an eTA.

Becerra told a border official at the airport that he was coming as a tourist and showed him his return flight. The official didn't believe him and examined his phone, where he found messages discussing Becerra's job in Toronto.

Becerra spent the night in a detention center, and the next morning he was taken in handcuffs to a plane that would return him to Mexico.

http://www.businessinsider.com/mexic...-canada-2017-3

The true scale of Mexican immigration will become fully apparent in June, when early arrivals on these eTAs are due to leave.

Unless Canada changes their strict rules, you leave when expected. Shock coming to the land & job stealers from mexico.

I was reading a article and comments about this that was trending on Facebook last night. Most of the comments were from Canadian's and I have to admit I couldn't stop laughing. The fight was on between the liberal and the conservative Canadian's. Forty eight percent of Canadian's want the illegal immigrants crossing our border into Canada deported. There is a lot of hate for PM Trudeau. Amazing how Trump figures into most of the arguments. The liberal Canadian's hate him and the conservatives want to trade Trudeau for Trump. The only problem that really concerns me is that a lot of Canadian's want to send all of their illegal immigrants across the border into the U.S.

Nobody wants the influx of poor illegal alien Mexicans.

They are a financial burden and breed criminality.

The Mexican government should be held accountable and billed for the cost of there citizens.

I'm sure the bills would be so ridiculously high and just maybe Mexico with find it cheaper to make the needed changes in Mexico so people stay.

Oh and I'm also sure they believe that Canada was stolen from them as illegal mexicans have a warped sense of history. They think everything is theirs and to get it all they need to do is open their hands, sob a little, lie a lot, and it all will be given to them.

Actually most of the illegal immigrants crossing our border into Canada are not from Mexico. Immigrants/refugees from third world countrys are flying into the U.S. with their visa, being driven to the US/Canadian border and walking through the woods with their suitcases and children in strollers. If they don't find a law officer, they walk right up to Canadian's homes, knock on their door and ask for asylum.

Canadian's along the border keep complaing, but their P.M. is like Jerry Brown. They are all welcome, the more the merrier.