Both asylum seekers and border patrol have been more present at the northern border of the U.S. and Québec, Canada, over the past few months. Asylum seekers are looking for refuge in Canada from a hostile political environment in the U.S., while border police from both the U.S. and Canada are using helicopters, sensors, drones, and vehicles to patrol for those making irregular crossings. During the past month, four times the number of asylum seekers have presented at Québec’s official ports of entry as during the same period one year ago.
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A Canadian newspaper, The Globe and Mail, reports that asylum seekers who appear at the U.S. border with Canada, and are not admitted, are now being turned back to the U.S. Hundreds are said to have already been turned over to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and detained. A spokesperson for CBP told The Globe and Mail, “It is now the organization’s policy to place asylum seekers and migrants redirected from Canada into custody and transfer them to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility for removal from the country.”
Bridges Not Borders is a small group of Canadian volunteers who live in the area near the Roxham Road crossing from southern Québec into upstate New York. They have been providing reliable information about seeking asylum in Canada for eight years, and said crossing unofficially into Canada is dangerous at any time of year. They report that during the last eight years, 21 people have died at the border from the cold or drowning, including four children, and that temperatures remain cold in spring.
Visit the Bridges Not Borders website for information in French and Spanish. Some information is also available in Arabic, Creole, and Turkish. www.bridgesnotborders.ca/before-you-travel.html
