Canada and the United States struck an immigration deal this Friday that resolves one of the last outstanding issues between the two neighbors and partners. The pact, announced after the Ottawa meeting between the President of the United States, Joe Biden, and the hosting Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, will restrict the entry of asylum seekers who travel in larger numbers via the so-called “migration route”. North”, but also to start a refugee reception program in this country, with which both governments want to alleviate the migratory pressure on the southern border of the United States.
The agreement comes into effect immediately. Canada will begin deporting these migrants tonight, many of them from Latin American countries, Trudeau announced during a press conference with his American guest.
Until now, Canada has been able to turn away irregular immigrants entering its territory through official border crossings at its dividing line with the United States. However, access via other “irregular” entry points was not included in the protocols between the two countries. A legal vacuum created by the so-called “Northern Migration Route”: After entering the US via the southern border, groups of migrants traveled to New York, mainly from Colombia, Chile, Haiti, Mexico, Pakistan, Turkey and Venezuela. From there they drove north of that state and entered Canada via the Roxham Road Pass. At this informal border point, migrants can apply for asylum in Canada even while waiting on US soil.
In 2022, nearly 40,000 irregular asylum seekers entered the country, most of them through the Roxham Road border crossing. This represents 60% of all inquiries registered in Canada during the year. Another 9,500 arrived in Canada between January and February this year, according to Canadian broadcaster CBC, prompting calls from opposition parties and the Quebec government for this unofficial crossing to be shut down.
Ottawa and Washington “are ready to implement an agreement that extends the terms” of the previous agreement “to asylum seekers crossing borders (at informal crossings) between border posts, which we expect will stop irregular migration at our shared border.” We will coordinate closely as we work to bring this new agreement into effect,” read the joint statement distributed by the United States and Canada after their leaders’ meeting.
At the same time, “Canada will receive an additional 15,000 humanitarian migrants annually from the Western Hemisphere to further develop safe and official routes with an open path to economic opportunities offered on the continent as an alternative to irregular migration,” he adds joint statement.
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The United States hopes the pact will help ease pressure on its southern border, where around 3 million migrants crossed the border last year fleeing poverty and violence in their countries of origin.
Earlier in January, Biden included citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela among the nationalities that US security forces can expel to Mexico using what is known as Title 42 if they irregularly cross the southern border. This measure, which expires in early May, was imposed by then-President Donald Trump’s administration during the pandemic, citing health reasons as the reason for the return.
Until then, the US government plans to replace this measure with a rule barring most non-Mexican migrants crossing this border illegally from seeking asylum, a move human rights organizations have criticized. This tightening is combined with other efforts to facilitate legal entry, including a sponsorship program launched last year that allows up to 30,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter the United States.
The Biden administration attributes the decline in the number of irregular immigrants detected at the southern border in recent months to this policy. In January, that number was 130,000 people, while in November it had reached 207,000.
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