Are U.S. migrants jumping the queue?

Re A shelter in the time of storm, Aug. 5

Let’s get back to basics. Immigrants are people who want to come to Canada, fit the criteria that we establish and follow the process that applies to everyone. Refugees are people who are fleeing persecution or severe danger — urgently needing refuge until their own country is considered safe enough for them to return home.

Canada is party to the Refugee and Humanitarian Resettlement Program. The UN and other private agencies select refugees for resettlement, many of whom are living in refugee camps.

Asylum seekers are basically anyone who is not part of that process, including smuggled “boat people,” people who come to Canada on visitor visas and then claim refugee status and, the most current example, border-crossers from the U.S. The vast majority are simply queue-jumpers and economic migrants who are in nowhere near the dire straits of the warravaged people from the resettlement program.

There are limits to the number of refugees that Canada can accept and adequately support while they wait to return home. Let’s ensure that queuejumpers and economic migrants don’t take the place of genuine refugees. Don Mustill, Markham It amazes, astounds and frightens me that we read a report about our neighbour to the south that begins: “They are fleeing the United States . . .” This phrase has been associated with Somalia, Syria and South Sudan, to name a few. Is it just me or are others deeply concerned about where this (fascist, misogynistic, racist, dictatorial and homophobic) man is taking the great nation of the United States (and possibly us and the rest of the world with him)? Matthew Marosszeky, Aurora