US sounds alarm over illegal entries from Canada
April 4, 2018
Anthony Furey
Meanwhile, people continue to pour into Canada illegally ...
While Canadians have grown accustomed to reports of high numbers of people illegally flooding into their own country, new reports indicate the opposite is also happening.
The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol had a “busy weekend” a few days ago as they apprehended 20 individuals crossing illegally into their country from Canada. The illegal crossings took place on the borders of New York, Vermont and New Hampshire.
In the middle of the night last Friday, Champlain Border Patrol guards stopped nine people crossing via the West Service Road in Champlain, New York.
“All the individuals are citizens of Haiti with no immigration documents that would allow them to legally enter or remain in the United States,” a U.S. Customs release states. “Agents apprehended all nine individuals and transported them to the Champlain Station for processing.”
The next day, eight people were apprehended crossing into Vermont. Seven of them are Romanian citizens and one is a German citizen. The day after that a Guatemalan man crossed into Vermont on a bicycle, followed by two more Guatemalans crossing later in the day into New Hampshire.
When people cross illegally into Canada, the response from the federal government has typically been to provide them with housing and support until their asylum claim can be heard many months and potentially years from their date of arrival.
The United States appears to be treating those crossing illegally into their country differently, instead gearing them up for deportation as soon as possible.
“All of the apprehended individuals were turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) for removal proceedings,” reads a release.
It’s unknown why these individuals chose to leave Canada for the United States and Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen’s office did not immediately respond to questions from Postmedia.
However, asylum seekers in Canada – particularly those from Haiti – have learned that staying here may not be as easy as they first thought.
Only around 10% of the almost 15,000 Haitian asylum seekers who came to Canada last year have so far been allowed to stay.
A recent Postmedia story reported on internal government emails that revealed how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau created chaos and confusion at the border by issuing his #WelcomeToCanada social media post in January of last year that was circulated around the world as a mistaken indication that Canada had open borders.
While illegal crossings into Canada hit a peak last July with a reported 5,712 RCMP interceptions, the number has still not returned to its pre-crisis levels.
This year’s data shows there were 1,517 interceptions in January and 1,565 in February, most of them at the Quebec border. It’s a sizeable increase over the 2017 numbers, which were 315 and 678, respectively.
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