Canada a backup home of the flee
Undocumented immigrants are running for the border — this time to Canada.
Hordes have been illegally crossing over the northern US border in hopes they’ll be accepted there more than under the Trump administration, according to reports.
One of the biggest entry points is from the small town of Champlain, NY. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police patrol the other side and arrest the travelers as they come over.
But they are often released within 24 hours and can live in the country while pressing their asylum cases.
Witnesses told US National Public Radio that whole families can be seen approaching the border and willingly getting arrested.
“They’ll be walking down the road with suitcases and back- packs,” said witness Matthew Turner.
An NPR reporter witnessed a woman with a baby and a black suitcase walking toward Canadian officers from the New York side Wednesday.
“You have to go through the custom, the border — but if you do cross here, you’ll be arrested and then we’ll take you in charge, OK?” the officer told the woman.
The woman nodded and stepped toward the mounted officers, who offered to help carry her baby and then helped her cross over, the report said.
A Mounted Police spokeswoman told NPR there has been “quite an increase in people walking through illegally.”
In January, 452 people claimed asylum at Quebec border crossings — a 230 percent increase from January 2016 — and 433 refugee claims were made in southern Ontario, according to the Canadian Border Service Agency.