B.C. border a gateway to Canada
ASYLUM: Safe Third Country law is based on ‘fiction’ that U.S. is safe for refugees, American lawyer says
The surge of asylum seekers walking across the Canadian border to escape Donald Trump’s tough talk on refugees and illegal immigrants is a phenomenon that hasn’t been seen in three decades, according to an American immigration lawyer.
Bellingham-based Greg Boos specializes in cross-border issues and he sees strong parallels to what happened in the mid-1980s, when much of Central America was embroiled in civil wars. U.S. involvement in those conflicts meant that refugees arriving in the U.S. faced deportation and possibly death in their home countries, and so the Canadian government at the time decided to welcome those who could make it to the border and pass a preliminary screening.
“Basically we have the exact same situation now, except for under the Safe Third Country Agreement, these people cannot present themselves at the (official) border crossings,” Boos said.
Under the 2004 agreement, refugees cannot claim asylum in Canada if they enter the country through land border crossings with the U.S.
Immigration advocates argue that the agreement is directly responsible for the hundreds of migrants braving harsh winter weather in places such as Emerson, Manitoba, to escape the anti-refugee rhetoric of the Trump administration.
“Safe Third Country is based on fiction,” Boos said. “It’s based on the fiction that the United States is a safe country for refugees. The fiction has always been easy to poke holes in, but under Trump you have to be blind not to see that that fiction doesn’t work.”
B.C.’s borders haven’t seen as much activity as those in Manitoba and Quebec, but there still appears to be a significant increase in new arrivals. Vancouver’s Settlement Orientation Services has already surpassed its annual target by 60 per cent for the number of refugees served and there’s still more than a month left in the financial year, according to manager Mona Hassannia.
“It’s crazy. The trend has been especially high since December,” she said. “We’ve definitely seen a lot of people crossing the border.”
The majority of border-crossers have been Iraqi-Kurdish, along with some Afghans and a few undocumented immigrants from Mexico. And Hassannia said she expects the trend to grow now that Trump has directed American officials to ramp up arrests and deportations of people who are in the U.S. illegally.
Andre Gerolymatos, a history professor at Simon Fraser University and co-director of the school’s terrorism, risk and security studies program, called Trump’s policies for dealing with illegal immigration “positively insane.” He said that instead of strengthening security, Trump is weakening it.
“What Trump is doing right now with those new regulations, he’s going to generate a lot of desperate people who are going to be pressing on Canada’s border,” he said.
Harsha Walia, of No One is Illegal, said her group has had constant calls in recent weeks from new arrivals and those who are hoping to make the risky run across the border.
“Right now we’re developing a multilingual resource guide for people crossing because one of the things we’ve seen is, unfortunately due to the (Canadian) government’s propaganda and PR spin, people think they can land and get their papers right away,” Walia said.
One important goal is to get the legal guide in the hands of potential refugees before they make the crossing, so they fully understand Canada’s asylum policies.
The new arrivals that Walia has spoken with come from all over the world and include Filipinos, Punjabis, Mexicans and Kurds. Their immigration status in the U.S. can vary, and many were not there illegally.
“Two people that called last week were African-American — U.S. citizens,” Walia said.
Bob Boulé, who owns the Smuggler’s Inn Bed & Breakfast on the Blaine side of the Canada-U. S. border, said he’s seen more enforcement activity than normal on both sides of the border during the past month and a half or so. This includes vehicle and foot patrols.
“We’re just seeing more activity all around,” he said.
As for people crossing the border illegally, he said he hasn’t seen anyone do it near his place in about six months.
“But that doesn’t mean that they’re not crossing,” he said. “I may live on the border but I’m not looking at the border all of the time.”
Canada Border Services Agency spokesperson Patrizia Giolti would not speculate on whether the flow of asylum seekers is expected to grow or what CBSA is doing to address increased volumes.
“However, we can tell you that we are well poised to address increased volumes. Further, we routinely monitor operations and adjust as required,” Giolti said.