Montreal, Canada – Canada has pledged to bolster safety at its border with the US, days after US President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose crippling tariffs in response to drug trafficking and undocumented migration.
Canadian Public Security Minister Dominic LeBlanc instructed reporters on Wednesday night that his authorities “could make further investments” on the border, with out offering concrete particulars.
He additionally stated Ottawa would impose higher restrictions to stop folks from going by way of Canada to achieve the US with out permits.
“We’ll proceed to tighten the screws on that course of to make it possible for we proceed to have an immigration system and borders that the truth is help the integrity and safety that Canadians and People work on day by day,” LeBlanc stated.
The minister’s remarks got here after a gathering in Ottawa between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and provincial premiers, who’ve raised issues and demanded motion over Trump’s tariff menace.
In a social media publish on Monday, Trump — who takes workplace in January — warned Canada and Mexico that he deliberate to impose 25-percent tariffs on imports from each international locations “till such time as Medication, particularly Fentanyl, and all unlawful Aliens cease this Invasion of our Nation!”
“Each Mexico and Canada have absolutely the proper and energy to simply remedy this lengthy simmering downside,” the president-elect added.
Whereas migrant and asylum seeker crossings on the US-Mexico border have drawn international headlines for years, the scenario on the US’s northern border with Canada receives far much less consideration. Right here’s what you should know.
How many individuals are crossing the US-Canada border?
US Customs and Border Safety (CBP) registered just below 199,000 “encounters” on the border with Canada between October 2023 and September of this 12 months.
This contains folks caught getting into the US illegally, in addition to people who find themselves deemed inadmissible at a port of entry.
By comparability, CBP recorded greater than 2.13 million encounters on the US-Mexico border in that very same interval.
What about drug trafficking?
Drug seizures on the border have gone down considerably, in keeping with CBP figures.
Between October 2023 and September 2024, about 5,245kg (11,565 kilos) of medication — largely marijuana — have been seized by US authorities. That’s down from some 25,000kg (55,101 kilos) seized over the identical interval a 12 months earlier.
What immigration guidelines govern the US-Canada border?
Final 12 months, the US and Canada expanded a decades-old settlement to offer authorities the facility to right away expel asylum seekers who cross the nations’ shared border at unofficial factors of entry.
Since 2004, the Secure Third Nation Settlement (STCA) has compelled asylum seekers to use for cover within the first nation they arrived in — the US or Canada, however not each.
However a loophole had allowed folks to hunt safety in the event that they reached Canadian soil. 1000’s of asylum seekers crossed into Canada throughout Trump’s first time period in workplace amid a wave of anti-immigrant insurance policies.
Now, the STCA applies to the whole lot of the US-Canada land border, which stretches 6,416km (3,987 miles), and folks may be turned again between ports of entry.
Who’s making an attempt to get into the US by way of Canada?
In current months, as the principles governing the border tightened, residents of nations that don’t require visas to journey to Canada have used the nation as a jumping-off level to attempt to attain the US.
Final 12 months, media shops reported that US President Joe Biden’s administration had requested Canada to impose visa necessities for Mexican nationals amid a rise in crossings on the northern border.
Ottawa reimposed the visa measures in February in response to what it stated was a spike in asylum claims from Mexican residents.
In the meantime, asylum seekers who’ve had their safety claims rejected by Canada have additionally sought to cross into the US lately — typically with the assistance of human smugglers, and typically with lethal outcomes.
In 2023, a household that had their asylum declare rejected in Canada drowned whereas making an attempt to cross into the US by boat. They have been dealing with deportation to their native Romania. Their our bodies have been discovered within the St Lawrence River.
In January 2022, a household from India additionally froze to demise in Manitoba — a province in central Canada — after they tried reaching the US on foot throughout freezing winter climate.
So does the scenario actually advantage Trump’s tariffs menace?
That relies on who you’re asking.
Each American and Canadian lawmakers have urged their respective governments to do extra to handle the scenario on the border.
For instance, in September, a bipartisan group of US senators put ahead laws to “strengthen safety” on the border with Canada. The invoice would require the Division of Homeland Safety to conduct a “Northern Border Menace Evaluation” and replace its technique there.
“The threats at our Northern border are continually evolving, and so too should our technique to fight these threats,” Senator Maggie Hassan, a Democrat who co-sponsored the measure, stated in a press release. Her state, New Hampshire, sits on the border.
“This bipartisan invoice will strengthen legislation enforcement’s efforts to cease the transnational prison organizations which are flooding our streets with fentanyl and different lethal medicine.”
What have Canadian politicians stated?
Whereas most Canadian politicians have pushed again towards the prospect of Trump’s 25-percent tariffs — saying such a transfer would incur job losses and spark an financial downturn — a bunch of right-wing premiers have argued the US president-elect raises “legitimate” issues in regards to the border.
“The federal authorities must take the scenario at our border significantly,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford stated in a social media publish this week. He has known as on Canada to impose retaliatory tariffs towards the US ought to Trump transfer ahead together with his plans.
Francois Legault, the right-wing premier of Quebec who has urged a harsher border crackdown amid an inflow of asylum seekers into the French-speaking province, stated he requested a “detailed plan” from the federal authorities “to raised safe the borders”.
“That may restrict unlawful entries into Quebec and keep away from Mr Trump’s 25% tariffs,” Legault wrote on X. Final month, he additionally advised Canada ought to forcibly switch tens of 1000’s of asylum seekers out of Quebec to different elements of the nation.
The stress on Trudeau, who has been in energy since 2015, comes because the Canadian prime minister has seen his recognition plummet amid a housing disaster and hovering prices of dwelling.
Current polls present his Liberals trailing far behind the opposition Conservative Occasion forward of a federal election that should be held earlier than late October 2025.
Conservative chief Pierre Poilievre has seized on the border problem to criticise the prime minister. “Justin Trudeau broke the border,” Poilievre instructed reporters on Thursday. “All of the chaos at our border is the results of Justin Trudeau.”
What have human rights advocates stated?
Julia Sande, human rights legislation and coverage campaigner at Amnesty Worldwide Canada, stated the US president-elect’s feedback this week in regards to the US-Canada border have been “deliberately obscure” and unclear.
“There’s point out of individuals crossing the border. Are we speaking about asylum seekers? He talks about unlawful actions; clearly, crossing to hunt asylum just isn’t unlawful,” Sande instructed Al Jazeera.
“And it’s due to the Secure Third Nation Settlement that persons are compelled to cross between ports of entry to hunt security,” she added.
“It’s one factor if we’re speaking in regards to the stream of medication, however when it contains folks and also you’re utilizing phrases like ‘unlawful aliens’, I’d hope that politicians would push again towards that.”
Alex Neve, a professor of worldwide human rights legislation on the College of Ottawa, additionally stated it was “deeply troubling” to see Canadian leaders “falling in keeping with Trump’s infected, bullying narrative in regards to the border”.
“All of a sudden precedence primary in Canada is ‘safeguarding’ the Canada/US border, as a result of Donald Trump has stated it should be so. Doesn’t appear to matter that the numbers don’t even remotely bear out his hateful fearmongering,” Neve wrote on social media.
“This hyperbolic discuss of hordes of unlawful migrants, more and more spouted by governments world wide, inevitably bodes sick for refugees and migrants, with actually life and demise penalties, and shopping for into it makes us a part of the issue.”
