U.S. and Canada reach pact on barring asylum-seekers
The United States and Canada have reached an agreement that will allow both countries to turn away asylum-seekers at their borders at a time when migration has surged across the hemisphere, a U.S. official familiar with the agreement said Thursday.
The deal, set to be announced today by President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after the two leaders meet in Ottawa, Ontario, will allow Canada to turn back immigrants at Roxham Road, a popular unofficial crossing point from New York for migrants seeking asylum in Canada.
In exchange, Canada has agreed to provide a new, legal refugee program for 15,000 migrants who are fleeing violence, persecution and economic devastation in South and Central America, the official said, lessening the pressure of illegal crossings into the United States from Mexico.
Biden was due to arrive in Ottawa on Thursday evening for a 24-hour visit meant to underscore the unity of purpose between the United States and Canada after four years of frosty and even openly hostile exchanges between Trudeau and former President Donald Trump. But the visit — long delayed from its usual place as an American president’s first trip abroad after taking office — will also expose some difficult issues between the two countries, including the long-standing debate over how to govern the movement of people across the border between them.
The agreement removes one of the relatively few disputes between Trudeau and Biden before the president’s arrival. The two leaders are
WASHINGTON >> also expected to discuss differences over how to stabilize Haiti, and the global race to develop critical minerals needed to make batteries and other technology.
But the accord is likely to further anger advocates for refugees, who are already frustrated with Biden’s decision to crack down on asylum-seekers at the border with Mexico.
Trudeau’s government has been pushing for months to expand a 2004 migration treaty with the United States that limits how many asylum-seekers Canada can turn away at its border, sending them back to the United States.
The treaty only allows Canada to turn back a migrant — for example, someone fleeing violence in El Salvador — if the person crosses at an official port of entry between the two countries. Crossings at unofficial points of entry, such as Roxham Road, have surged in the past several years, putting pressure on Trudeau to limit them.
(Asylum-seekers who come from other countries by plane or by ship are not covered by the agreement regardless of where they enter. They are comparatively few in number and, in many cases, are detained until their hearings.)
Until recently, officials in the United States have been resisting a change in the treaty. But people on both sides of the border said conversations
Migrants arrive at the Roxham Road border crossing in Canada from New York state, in February. have been underway in an attempt to resolve the issue before the daylong summit.
For Biden, the deal could help lessen the record number of migrants who have surged toward the southern border through Mexico, driven by political instability across the region and economic changes that have increased poverty.
Trudeau’s government has welcomed refugees from Syria and elsewhere, and has pledged to increase immigration, earning Canada a reputation as being more open to migrants than many other Western nations. But over the past year, as migration has swelled at Canada’s border, there are signs that the country’s famed hospitality toward migrants may be fraying.
The nearly 40,000 migrants who crossed into the country last year — more than double the number in 2019 — have given Canada a small taste of the challenges that other Western countries have faced in settling refugees and prompted Trudeau’s opponents to call for him to renegotiate a key agreement on asylum-seekers with the United States. The number arriving each month has spiked, with almost 5,000 people arriving in January.
Today, Biden will meet with the younger Trudeau and deliver an address to the Canadian Parliament.