Canada’s illegal migrant crossing loophole has finally been closed
The illegal migrant crossing loophole at Roxham Road has finally been closed by Canadian and American officials who announced Roxham’s closure after President Joe Biden visited Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in mid-March.
According to Global News, under the new treaty both Canada and the United States will recognize each other as safe countries, which will prevent illegal migrants from crossing at Roxham Road and using an asylum claim as a means to be unofficially allowed to enter Canada via the irregular crossing.
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“It’s short-sighted, both for Canada and for refugees,” Maureen Silcoff, a Canadian immigration lawyer, told Global News. “The solution would have been to end the agreement and allow people to cross at official ports of entry and seek asylum, allowing provinces across the country to receive them.”
Silcoff explained that she doesn’t believe the new agreement will stop immigrants from trying to get into Canada, it will only force them to do it in more dangerous ways. “Refugees should never be politicized,” Silcoff said. “People will potentially die.”
“If they are seeking to go somewhere else,” Adams told Fox 5 New York in a February 6th interview, “we are helping in the reticketing process.”
“Some want to go to Canada, some want to go to warmer states, and we are there for them as they continue on,” Adams added.
Adams confirmed that the city was providing migrants with free bus tickets that would help them reach their end destinations, and for many, that was Roxham Road.
What is Roxham Road
Roxham Road is a stretch of road that runs from Plattsburgh, New York into Quebec, Canada, and it was an irregular border crossing where asylum seekers were allowed to walk into the country without any repercussions.
“Since 2017, more than 60,000 asylum seekers have entered Canada through such irregular routes from the US,” Alexandria Tremayne-Pengally of The Guardian.
Prospective refugees were allowed to enter Canada via Roxham Road because of a now well-known loophole that was accidentally written into a 2004 treaty between Canada and the United States.
“The Safe Third Country Agreement, Tremayne-Pengally wrote, “stipulates that asylum seekers in either country must seek refugee protection in whichever country they first arrive and will be turned away from ports of entry to the other nation.”
