President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are expected to announce a deal on Friday that would allow the US and Canada to turn away asylum seekers who cross their borders without authorization, two US officials confirmed.
The agreement is likely to be followed by a comprehensive bilateral meeting in Ottawa, where migration will be a key topic of conversation between the two heads of state.
The deal, first reported Thursday by the Los Angeles Times, deals with U.S. citizens caught within 14 days of crossing the U.S.-Canada border. or shall apply to persons without Canadian citizenship.
A US official said Canada would also commit to taking in an additional 15,000 migrants from the Western Hemisphere next year on humanitarian grounds.
Illegal crossings from Canada into the US have climbed to historically high levels, although they are still a fraction of crossings from Mexico into the US.
In the Swanton sector of the US border, which covers New Hampshire, Vermont and part of northern New York, illegal border crossings increased by a factor of 10 during the most recent five months compared to the same period last year, according to US Customs. has increased. and border security data.
From October 1 to February 28, nearly 2,000 migrants were caught crossing the border illegally in the sector, compared to only 200 in the same period last year.
NBC News reports that Mexicans desperate to get to the US are going to Canada to try to cross the border. The US has begun flying migrants caught at the northern border south to Texas, and this month CBP moved 25 additional agents to the northern border.
A US official said on Thursday that the US and Canada are also ready to implement the terms of an existing “safe third country agreement” for refugees who cross between ports of entry.
That agreement means people must apply for asylum in the first safe countries they arrive at, with exceptions — as opposed to going to Canada and then the U.S. or vice versa.
Asked to comment on the expected agreement, a spokeswoman for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said the US and Canada “are engaged on all aspects of irregular migration, including the Safe Third Country Agreement.”
“We will continue to work with the US on this and other areas of border cooperation,” the spokesperson said.
Biden is making his first presidential trip to Canada this week, where Trudeau has offered to help the Biden administration stem the flow of migrants entering Canada from the US and claiming asylum.
The CBC reports that since 2017 the number of people claiming asylum after crossing the border from the US at unauthorized crossings has been on the rise.