IMMIGRANT ARC RESPONDS TO US/CANADA DEAL TO DIVERT ASYLUM SEEKERS
New York, NY; March 27, 2023 - Immigrant ARC is disappointed with the recently announced agreement between the United States and Canada allowing both countries to divert asylum seekers from their borders at a time when migration has surged across the hemisphere. Advocates reported the ban going into effect hours after it was announced; The last time this happened was the first Muslim Travel Ban under President Trump, and it caused chaos. This also comes on the heels of last month’s announcement that the Biden Administration will place new restrictions on asylum seekers looking for protection at the U.S. Southern Border.
Roxham Road in Canada first became a news headline in 2017, when immigrants terrified of the Trump Administration and its scare tactics began fleeing to Canada in higher numbers. Forced away from regular border crossings by the stringent restrictions of the Safe Third Country Agreement, which prevents individuals from transiting through the US or Canada in order to seek asylum in the other, increasing numbers of people began crossing into Canada a few miles away. Numbers dipped through the pandemic and early months of the Biden Administration, but recently have begun spiking again. Last December, nearly 5,000 migrants crossed into Canada along this one country road, more than doubling the number from years before.
The idea is that the agreement would divert up to 15,000 migrants each year from that dangerous trek, leaving the Biden administration with fewer migrants to turn away. It would ostensibly also allow Canada to turn back to the United States migrants who have decided to try their luck with the Canadian asylum system rather than to win protection in the United States. If they are not careful, however, Canadian leaders risk falling into the same traps as their American counterparts: creating restrictionist policies with too few complimentary avenues to enter Canada, which will lead, over time to confusion, chaos, and a system entirely ill equipped and ill resourced to manage the needs.
“First and foremost, the Governments on both sides of the border should acknowledge that migration will not cease,” says Immigrant ARC Executive Director Camille Mackler. “Having jurisdictions agree to take on a certain number of people and then arbitrarily assigning where they will go will only backfire, with people looking for new ways to circumvent the system so that they can choose where they resettle based on whatever parameters make sense for them.”
She goes on to say, “In our view, investing in creating welcoming communities is the best way to organically support migration by choice. In the twenty years I have been working as an immigration attorney, one thing has been made clear: people will gravitate to the places they think offer the most opportunity for stability, safety, and prosperity. Creating welcoming ecosystems has largely been up to local governments so far, with political beliefs and cultural and social trends often affecting the willingness of any given community to welcome newcomers. By creating robustly resourced programs across a wide variety of locations, national governments can encourage resettlement in a larger number of places, easing the burdens placed on a particular location. Moving forward, it is not enough for the head of a country to announce they will share the number of people moving through their borders. They must also work to promote, facilitate, and resource cross-local networks in order to ensure that migrants are properly supported once they arrive at their destination - and so they don’t choose to leave again.”
Ultimately, Mackler concludes, “Federal Governments need to listen to local governments to implement real, human solutions. Otherwise, closing Roxham Road will only become one more band aid policy fix meant to address concerns in the centers of power, but with no real impact on the ground other than to prolong human suffering.”
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Immigrant ARC is a collaborative of over 80 organizations and professional associations providing legal services to New York’s immigrant communities throughout the State. Born out of the legal effort at JFK Airport during the Muslim Travel Ban in 2017, our mission is clear: to mobilize New York State’s legal service providers by facilitating communication and information sharing to better support our immigrant communities; to organize and respond to issues as they arise by coordinating resources and fostering best practices among providers; and to resist and challenge anti-immigrant policies by shining a light on injustices and confronting inequalities faced by our communities in the legal system.
CONTACT: press@immigrantarc.org
