March 9, 2017 – New Immigration Executive Order signed by U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday will go into effect on March 16. This revised executive order places a temporary immigration ban on citizens of six predominantly Muslim countries – Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, and Libya. This new order will not affect current visa or green-card holders (permanent residents), but seeks to reduce the number of refugees entering the United States to under 50,000 in 2017. This is a huge jump from the 110,000 refugees allowed in last year. The new order – like the original – will suspend the U.S. refugee program for 120 days, preventing any new refugees from entering the country during this time.
While all of this is going on, we are likely to see large numbers of people seeking asylum in Canada. Several Canadian cities – including Toronto, London, Hamilton, and Montreal – have already been declared sanctuary cities for undocumented immigrants. This allows all residents in those cities to access public services regardless of immigration status – or lack thereof. This also means that refugees in those cities will not be arrested or deported for reasons of non-criminal offenses (e.g. parking tickets). While Canada is much more open to immigration than the U.S., many Canadians are against allowing more refugees into Canada as they fear this may result in people illegally crossing the U.S./Canada border.
The Safe Third Country Agreement states that an individual who claims refugee status in the U.S. cannot do so in Canada. However, this agreement only works for those refugees who make a legal claim at a Canadian border crossing. As such, it is possible for those who might be refused entry to cross the border into Canada illegally and seek asylum once inside. While we want to keep the doors open for those who are genuinely in need of asylum, we must be wary of those who might cross the border with malicious intent.
Many Canadian citizens and permanent residents are now speaking out against refugees as they see this as being unfair to those who have gone through – or must go through – a lengthy immigration process to enter Canada legally.
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