Salvadorans in U.S. look to Canada for refuge

200,000 could lose protected status

OTTAWA • The federal government’s contingency plans for a new surge of asylum seekers at the border this winter could be put to the test with the pending U.S. decision on the fate of as many as 200,000 Salvadorans.

The Trump administration is on the cusp of announcing whether it will renew the temporary protected status that’s allowed Salvadorans to live in the United States without fear of deportation since 2001.

Their status expires in March, and with the U.S. ending what’s known as the TPS program for thousands of nationals from other countries in recent months, it’s likely Salvadorans are next.

The U.S. has argued the temporary nature of the program has been abused, and the conditions — like natural disasters or conflict — that had made it unsafe for people to return to certain countries have changed.

But that’s left thousands of people facing deportation to countries they haven’t lived in for years.

When asked what he’d do if he lost his TPS status, Salvadoran Carlos Reyes, 40, who lives in Long Island, N.Y., told Newsday that Canada was an option.

“One thing I know is I’m going to lose my job, and if I don’t have a job, what can I do? I don’t want to go there (to El Salvador) but I won’t be able to stay here,” he told the New York newspaper this week.

“... There’s Canada, but I don’t know anything about Canada. My life and everything is here.”

Salvadorans represent the largest population covered by the temporary protected status program and the potential for them and other Central Americans to come to Canada was flagged in briefing notes by Canadian diplomats in the U.S. earlier this year, following a surge of Haitian asylum seekers showing up at the border.

The Haitians began arriving even before a final decision had been made on their temporary status and the surge — upward of 200 people a day in the summer months — saw the Liberal government scramble to mount a response.

Just over 1,500 people in total crossed illegally into Canada in November, down from 5,530 in August. But the November numbers are still comparatively high — in January 2017, only 315 people crossed.

Haitians make up the vast majority of the border crossers who have filed asylum claims; Salvadorans don’t currently even crack the top 10, according to figures from the Immigration and Refugee Board.

But asylum claims from Salvadorans have been on the rise. Data from the IRB shows that 244 refugee claims were lodged in Canada by Salvadorans in all of 2016. Between January and September of 2017, there were 564.