Expect to see a spike around the time when Trump takes office until refugees get a sense of the direction in which the new president may take immigration policy.
(Canadian Immigration lawyer Bashir Khan)
Readers might want to first check out a post from a few days ago where we reported that ‘refugees’ from Ghana were found freezing after a long walk across the US/Manitoba border, click here.
For new readers, just a reminder, we have a Canada category, here, with 186 previous posts going back nearly 10 years.
Canadian immigration lawyers are saying there is an increase in the number of mostly Somalis leaving the US and heading north and they predict that when Trump is inaugurated (in 9 days) the numbers will tick up even higher.
What concerned me most about this news is that if these Somalis were legally admitted to the US, they have nothing to fear. Why bother risking their lives traveling to Canada? So, that can only mean that they were in the US illegally and were possibly waiting on asylum claims to be processed and simply disappeared. How many more illegal Somalis are wandering around America?
Editor: I had previously posted a photo here that I now believe came from a fake news site. I apologize and have removed it.
From CBC Manitoba (hat tip: Joanne). Emphasis is mine:
The number of asylum seekers crossing the Canada-U.S. border into Manitoba on foot instead of through official ports of entry has risen fivefold in the past three years. [Keep in mind that the numbers were going up before Trump even came on the scene!—ed]
In the 2013-2014 fiscal year, 68 people illegally crossed the international border near the small, southern Manitoba community of Emerson and claimed refugee status, according to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). That jumped to 340 in 2015-2016.
This fiscal year’s numbers have already surpassed that, with 410 asylum seekers making the journey between April and December 2016.
According to Jacquie Callin, a CBSA spokeswoman, most of those crossing near Emerson are from Somalia, which has been wracked by civil war and political instability since the overthrow of military dictator Siad Barre in 1991.
Canada has the reputation of being a land of liberty and appeals to the unprecedented number of refugees displaced by the world’s various conflicts and crises, said immigration lawyer Bashir Khan. [Business must be booming for Mr. Khan!—ed]
[….]
CBSA reports 119 asylum seekers came to Manitoba in the coldest winter months between December 2015 and March 2016 without passing through a port of entry or border checkpoint.
Pay attention to this next line! Legitimate asylum seekers are to ask for asylum in the country in which they first arrive. If this international understanding was enforced everywhere then many of the problems the world is experiencing with migrants would be solved. Instead migrants now believe they can wander around the world looking for the best deal! It is called asylum shopping.
Under the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement signed in 2002, individuals must seek asylum in the country in which they first arrive, with a few exceptions. For instance, if a Somali refugee who arrived in the United States presented themselves at the Canadian border seeking asylum, they would be sent back to the U.S. unless they had family in Canada. [But were the illegal border-crossers sent back, there is no mention!—ed]
[….]
People entering the country without visas or proper immigration papers have been spotted walking through fields and gravel roads near the border in Emerson, whose southern boundary borders the states of North Dakota and Minnesota.
[….]
RCMP D Division patrols 520 kilometres of the Canada-U.S. border, the world’s longest undefended border. When officers find a person trying to illegally cross, they bring them to the nearest port of entry to be assessed by a CBSA official.
If there’s no admissibility concerns and the person’s refugee claim is legitimate, they are released and a date is set for the claim to be heard. [How many ever show up?—ed]
[….]
Khan said he expects to see a spike around the time when Trump takes office until refugees get a sense of the direction in which the new president may take immigration policy.
LOL! I bet some of you are wondering if you could hire buses to take loads to the border of Justin Trudeau’s ‘welcoming’ Canada.