Canada's immigration minister says “not everyone is welcome” in the country as authorities prepare for a surge in migrants when President Donald Trump returns to the White House promising mass deportations. said.
Immigration experts say the minister's warning comes seven years after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised asylum seekers that “Canadians will welcome” them, and the minister's warning comes as the country's support for immigrant and refugee resettlement continues to decline. Although it has weakened, it is said to reflect a significant change in the tone of the debate.
President Trump has promised to enact the nation's largest mass deportation when he takes office in January. Tom Homan, a senior official involved in overseeing the policy, said Monday that the incoming administration would target people in the U.S. illegally who are considered to pose a threat to public safety.
But the impact of these policies is widely expected to prompt many undocumented people in the United States to flee north, crossing unmonitored sections of the 5,500-mile border.
Immigration Minister Mark Miller told the Globe and Mail that the government “will always act in the national interest to ensure that our borders are secure and that people who come to Canada can do so through legitimate channels.” said. Not everyone is welcome here. ”
During President Trump's first term, tens of thousands of Haitians fled to Canada after the president ended Temporary Protected Status for Haitians.
At the time, Prime Minister Trudeau posted on social media: “To those fleeing persecution, terrorism and war: Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Our diversity is our strength. #Welcome to Canada”
Canada's federal police force said it has plans to deal with the new increase in railroad crossings over “several months.” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the government “absolutely approves.”[d] The importance of border security and the importance of controlling our borders, controlling who comes into Canada and who doesn't. ”
But immigration experts said the government's tough messaging on border security ahead of a potential humanitarian crisis reflected an abandonment of its moral responsibility and the Refugee Convention.
“Canada's first and only response to the possibility of persecution in a neighboring country is, 'How can we prevent people from fleeing to our country?'” That's certainly familiar, and surprising. It's not that bad, but it's unfortunate,” said Audrey Macklin, a law professor at the University of Toronto.
Under the Refugee Convention, states cannot refuse asylum seekers if there is a well-founded fear of persecution in their country of origin. Until 2005, people seeking asylum could do so at a port of entry, but the U.S.-Canada agreement promoted by Canada has made that more difficult. This agreement, the Safe Third Country Agreement, allowed Canada to send claimants back to the United States and vice versa.
“The idea was that you don't send them back to a country where they fear persecution. You're just sending them to the United States. The idea that the United States is a safe country for people to seek and obtain refugee protection.” is built into the agreement,” said Macklin, who previously served on the Immigration and Refugee Commission.
Recent changes to the agreement will make it harder to claim asylum when traveling from the U.S. to Canada, forcing families to take an increasingly dangerous route – Macklin says it's a “huge job boost program for people smugglers'' he said.
Under current rules, a person can apply for asylum if they remain undetected in Canada for 14 days.
“Canada and the United States have created a market for smugglers by making it impossible to seek refugee protection at ports of entry, because if you can do it, if people can do it, there is no need to use smugglers. Because there isn't,” Macklin said. “And from now on, people will have to pay smugglers a 14-day concealment fee.”
Macklin said Canada should reconsider the agreement if it wants to prevent people from making the dangerous journey north.
“If there are people who actually care about harm to asylum seekers, if there are people who are absolutely concerned about their health, they will use the services of smugglers, they will use the services of human traffickers. Safe Third Country Agreements will not force them into a system where they have to go through dangerous routes where they are at risk of injury, such as frozen limbs or other forms of danger. They will understand that it is designed to cause harm,” she said.
“What we're seeing now is the completely predictable result of deliberate and deliberate policies that Canada has pursued for decades.”
