{"id":21347,"date":"2019-04-10T14:27:29","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T18:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=21347"},"modified":"2019-04-10T14:27:31","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T18:27:31","slug":"canadian-government-cracking-down-on-asylum-laws-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2019\/04\/10\/canadian-government-cracking-down-on-asylum-laws-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian Government Cracking Down On Asylum Laws"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

More than two years after his infamous #WelcomeToCanada tweet<\/a> declaring his nation open to all, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing a border crisis of his own due to an \u201celevated number\u201d of refugees and illegal border crossers. So, his government is moving to close a legal loophole often exploited by those claiming asylum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government\u2019s 2019 budget<\/a> includes a provision which would prevent refugees from seeking asylum if they made similar claims in countries with whom Canada has an immigration information-sharing agreement, such as the U.S. and U.K. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It stipulates that \u201cfailed\nasylum claimants who entered into Canada at irregular crossings or between\nofficial ports of entry will also be removed on a priority basis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 392-page omnibus budget\nbill also calls for increased spending on enforcement to deal with the rise in\nasylum seekers and illegal border crossings that has \u201cchallenged the fairness\nand effectiveness of Canada\u2019s asylum system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the reasons why more\naliens are trying to cross illegally is because the Safe Third Country\nAgreement between the U.S. and Canada says asylum-seekers are prohibited from\nclaiming refugee protection in Canada if they arrive at an official border\ncheckpoint from a safe country, such as the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Globalnews<\/a>, an internal memo prepared for Canada\u2019s immigration minister prior to a January 2018 meeting with then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristjen Nielsen showed the Canadians were increasingly concerned the effectiveness of the agreement, which it maintained was \u201cno longer working as intended.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an effort to sidestep the\nlaw, the memo said asylum seekers were \u201ccrossing into Canada between ports of\nentry where the agreement does not apply. This has brought to our attention\ngaps that may be creating a pull factor for people to cross illegally into\nCanada.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like its southern neighbor,\nthe Canadian government has been struggling to deal with the surging numbers of\nillegal immigrants in the last few years, specifically financing enough immigration\njudges to respond to asylum claims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2018 budget allocated an additional $72\u00a0million<\/a> to the\u00a0Immigration and Refugee Board\u00a0of Canada\u00a0(IRB)\u00a0over two\u00a0years to increase capacity so they can deal with the growing number of refugee protection claims. Last year, there were almost 30,000 preapproved refugee arrivals<\/a>, which is distinct from asylum claims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as radical activists\nand open-border advocates in the U.S. have criticized efforts to enforce the\nnation\u2019s immigration laws, groups in Canada fired up their rhetoric and\nfear-mongering too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are shocked that the government would use an omnibus budget bill to strip away human rights protections from vulnerable refugee claimants,\u201d said<\/a> Maureen Silcoff, Litigation Committee Chair of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers. \u201cRemoving these protections will result in costly legal challenges, and is bound to create further delay and confusion in the refugee system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One could assume from of\nthose \u201ccostly legal challenges\u201d would be lodged by Silcoff and her associates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the surge of illegal crossings began in 2017, the Canadian government has also struggled to house the growing numbers. They were forced to open<\/a> up Olympic Stadium in Montreal as a temporary shelter, and the Canadian military was tasked with building other shelters<\/a> to process the asylum seekers crossing into Quebec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem of illegal border crossings goes both ways. Data released<\/a> in March by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), shows 4,316 people were apprehended along the border last year, up from 3,027 in 2017 and 2,283 in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the U.S. has a less-than-cooperative partner\nalong the southern border, perhaps there is some hope for closing legal\nloopholes and stopping violations of immigration law on both sides of the\nnorthern border. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than two years after his infamous #WelcomeToCanada tweet declaring his nation open to all, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is facing a border crisis of his own due to an \u201celevated number\u201d of refugees and illegal border crossers. So, his government is moving to close a legal loophole often exploited by those claiming asylum. The<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":17826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[5],"tags":[1713,1524,1903,3328],"yst_prominent_words":[2530,5161,3552,2043,4730,2947,5209,5210,5205,5207,1983,2013,3781,4729,1963,5211,5206,2105,5208,1939],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21347"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21348,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21347\/revisions\/21348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21347"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=21347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}