“It is very worrying,” assures Prime Minister François Legault in a message from his office.
As Enquête has observed, smuggling networks with ties to powerful criminal organizations are increasingly involved in illegal border crossings that are becoming increasingly common from Quebec to the United States.
Criminal groups in Mexico also create false Mexican passports and false identities for people seeking to travel to Canada, whether to seek asylum, evade police checks or use Canada as a gateway to the United States.
At some point, someone in Ottawa will have to wake up, writes François Legault’s team in a written statement.
The lifting of visa requirements for Mexican nationals, implemented by Justin Trudeau’s government in late 2016, is at the heart of this problem.
This measure made it easier for thousands of Mexicans to travel to Canadian airports. The data has increased continuously in recent years and reached record levels.
Number of asylum applications from Mexico
- 2023 (January-June): 10,108
- 2022: 7483
- 2019: 5634
- 2018: 3157
Quebec is still receiving significant numbers of asylum seekers, particularly through airports, despite the closure of Roxham Road. Now we also learn that Mexican organized crime is taking advantage of this and is involved in human trafficking, regrets Prime Minister Legault’s office.
Unfortunately, the federal government is not doing its job and Quebec must take responsibility for all of this.
Between January and June of this year alone, the Refugee Protection Department received more than 10,000 asylum applications from Mexican nationals.
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“Travel from Montreal to New York”, “fast, efficient and safe transport service”: Criminal networks are increasing the number of offers for illegal crossings.
Photo: Radio-Canada / Mathieu Blanchette
Quebec wants an analysis of Mexican visas
Quebec also sends a message to Ottawa. The Trudeau government must “seriously analyze the issue of tourist visas so that only genuine tourists benefit.”
This demand is similar to that of the American government. Washington wants Ottawa to reintroduce visas for Mexican citizens seeking to enter Canada to strengthen security measures.
An idea that was officially rejected by the Trudeau government until recently.
However, following the publication of the investigation’s revelations on Thursday, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc was less positive.
The abolition of this visa came about in connection with Donald Trump’s renegotiation of an economic agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States, he recalled on Thursday evening in the program It’s looking at us. “We had to find allies in Mexico, there is no doubt about that,” he said.
However, the general security and circumstances of illegal migration have changed since these years, said Dominic LeBlanc. The border between Canada and the United States is increasingly becoming a target for human traffickers of all kinds.
There is a lot of money to be made in organized crime through human trafficking and illegal immigration.
But at the moment, he added, we have no plans to change the visa status.