The country in the far north of the continent applied this Saturday the agreement announced on Friday with the United States, where it can return irregular immigrants who are in the territory, even if they have not passed through official points of entry. This responds to concerns about the emerging number of foreigners seeking to cross the border. For his part, Joe Biden ended his journey on Canadian soil.
As of this Saturday, March 25, Canada put into operation the new measures confirmed on Friday to return to the United States or their places of origin those asylum seekers who are in the country irregularly.
“Border agents will enforce the agreement starting at midnight and deport irregular border crossers to the nearest US border point,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had warned last night.
The agreement signed with Washington during the stay of President Joe Biden erases the grey gap that existed until now, where Ottawa could expel migrants who passed through registered border points but did not give it tools for those who entered by another method and for whom they could even ask for protection.
A good fraction of these migrants are from Latin America who intend to reach the United States or who aim to settle in Canada. For example, the Canada-United States crossing is one of the favourites for many Mexicans, who can fly without a visa to the most extreme country in the Americas and from there reach the US, avoiding more docile controls.
Lately, the US Border Patrol has registered an increase in illegal crossings from our northern neighbour. Despite having numbers far lower than those on the border with Mexico, it was a growing concern.
In the past month, 628 people were arrested, a number five times higher than in the same period in 2022.
As part of this recent pact, the Trudeau government promised to grant asylum to 15,000 Latin American migrants on humanitarian grounds this year.
Biden closed his journey in Canada.
The US president’s trip to Canada ended one day after strengthening “brother ties” with the neighbouring country.
The most important part of his visit took place on Friday with the announcement of the new legislation against the migratory flow and the help that Ottawa will give to the Haitian National Police to alleviate the violent crisis that it is undergoing. The sum is around 100 million Canadian dollars.Before returning to Washington, Biden and his wife, Jill, attended an honorary dinner hosted by the Canadian Prime Minister and his wife, Sophie Grégorie.
This two-day trip is the first that a United States president has made to Canada since 2016, with Barack Obama in power.
with EFE
