Hemmingford | Twelve hours after Roxham Road officially closed, residents have seen no change and are wondering when the real return to normal will happen.
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“They still take them, they don’t leave them with their suitcases on the other side,” regrets Hélène Gravel, who has lived in this row for 25 years.
As of midnight Saturday, migrants attempting to cross the irregular Roxham Road border crossing have now been transported by bus to a border crossing a few kilometers away.
An agreement reached Friday between Ottawa and Washington now prevents refugee applicants from the United States from entering Canada through an irregular border crossing, or they will be sent back to a US customs post.
“We expect it will take a while for things to settle down. Do they go through the forest afterwards? asks Ms. Gravel.
Upcoming dismantling?
“I have no information, it happened so quickly. They’ll probably stay there for a while. Will they dismantle their investments? I hope so, because these cabins take the cachet off the landscape,” stresses a neighbor of the Roxham Road border crossing.
She wished to remain anonymous because the subject of this passage, taken by around 40,000 migrants in 2022, is divided among residents of this once-peaceful street of Hemmingford in Montérégie.
“What’s going to happen? They’re going to put up a wall, people are going to do the same thing? Does that mean that [la Gendarmerie royale du Canada] will you run after people again? asks the resident of the area for 21 years.
“We’re going to wish for a return to normal,” she breathes as she prepares dinner for her visiting family.
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