Well what should Canada expect when their Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invited them in in the immediate wake of the election of Donald J. Trump! Now the Canadians have the audacity to tell us we have to be more strict about who we admit to the US, so our soil doesn’t become a stepping stone to their welcoming arms in the north.
Before I get to the story from the Washington Post, let me say a few words about the asylum racket. Unlike the usual US Refugee Admissions Program that I write about all the time where ‘refugees’ are selected abroad and flown here, prospective asylum seekers arrive in a safe country and request asylum by claiming they will be persecuted if returned home for reasons such as religion, race, political persuasion etc. (running from crime and violence is not a legitimate reason for eligibility!).
If they are granted asylum they are then full-fledged refugees who get all of the ‘services’ other refugees receive.
According to the UN and following generally understood international norms, they are to ask for asylum in the FIRST safe country they reach.
But, all of that first country stuff is out the window as people all over the world are out doing “asylum shopping.”
If they land in Greece they want Germany and those Central Americans on our southern border right now were supposed to have asked for asylum in Mexico, but they are testing our asylum system knowing that if they get a foot in the door the process will drag out for years.
The Nigerians crossing into Canada are also shopping because they believe the political climate in the US, under President Trump, is not conducive to a favorable ruling in an asylum claim.
Now, here are a few snips from what the Washington Post reported on Saturday:
Nigerians are walking into Canada, prompting request for U.S. to take action
MONTREAL — As Nigerian asylum seekers flood into Canada across a ditch in Upstate New York, Canadian authorities are asking the United States for help — but not with managing the influx at the border.
Instead, they want U.S. immigration officials to reduce the foot traffic by screening Nigerians more stringently before granting them U.S. visas.
It is a ripple effect that few expected last summer when people, mostly Haitians, began to walk into Quebec via an “irregular” border crossing north of Plattsburgh, N.Y., and seek refugee status.
With the coming of spring, the flow has picked up again. But recently, the asylum seekers have been mostly Nigerian, and their route to the border is more problematic, Canadian officials say.
Many Haitians had lived in the United States for years before suddenly learning they would lose their protected status and fleeing north. But many of the Nigerian asylum seekers are arriving in Quebec with recently issued U.S. visitor visas, said Mathieu Genest, a spokesman for Canada’s immigration minister.
We agree! The US should be stricter about who enters the US and for what reason!
“They’re not using the visa for the reason it was intended for,” he said.
Canada is not asking U.S. officials to refuse entry to Nigerians, Genest said. It is seeking stricter screening to ensure that Nigerians who are granted U.S. visitor visas truly intend to return home.
The request is an unsurprising one between two countries that have collaborated for decades on migration-related matters. But it also is a sign that Canada is feeling new pressure on its borders as U.S. immigration and refugee policies shift.
[….]
The Canadian government has been trying to tone down its welcoming image — or, rather, to provide accurate information about how it processes refugee claims.
Ethnic communities in the United States have been warned that actually winning refugee status here is hard.
But the campaign has been ineffective. As of mid-April, nearly 6,000 people had entered Quebec unofficially, three times as many as during the same period in 2017. And in 2017, claims across the country had doubled from the year before.
Visitor visa racket!
Winning U.S. asylum claims has become much harder, as well. The approval rate dropped 26 percent from 2016 to 2017, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services statistics compiled by Human Rights First.
Eleanor Acer, the Washington-based group’s director of refugee protection, said Canada is well aware that, for many people, the only way to claim asylum in any country is to get a visitor visa first.
More here.
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