Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reached a general agreement yesterday on a method to keep asylum seekers from amassing at a U.S. border, just not the one in the south.
As first reported by Reuters, the two leaders cosigned a revised Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) and will present this to both nations Friday after their official meeting.
“[We] feel like we have had great success with our partners in Canada, and we expect to continue that coordination,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters while en route to Ottawa. “The President and the Prime Minister certainly will have more to share tomorrow. Don’t want to get ahead of any specific announcements.”
Reuters reports that Trudeau, who has faced pressure from his constituency – particularly in his home province of Quebec – to curtail an inflow of asylum seekers, has agreed to take in 15,000 migrants on a humanitarian basis next year.
However, the expectation is that the United States will step up its efforts to stem the flow of migrants traveling from the U.S. into Canada.
The New York Times reported earlier this month that asylum seekers entering Canada from the U.S. numbered about 40,000 in all of 2022, but that numbers are spiking in 2023 with at least 5,000 entries in January alone.
“[We’re] seeing an increase in irregular migration going north into Canada, which reflects the regional and global migration challenge, as we have been talking about,” Jean-Pierre said. “We’re committed to working with them to address it, including by prioritizing orderly and safe migration through regular pathways. So we continue to enforce our immigration laws and … remove these without a legal basis to remain in the U.S., and DHS continues to efficiently process these individuals.”
In a separate article on Thursday, Reuters reported that the U.S. began flying migrants found at the northern border to Texas, which the administration views as a deterrent.
Thursday marked the first day of Biden’s official visit to Canada, a trip he had delayed previously.
Beyond immigration, the two leaders are expected to discuss both nations’ continued support of Ukraine.
“We’ll be working on the many different priorities we share – like creating good jobs for workers, strengthening trade between our countries, fighting climate change, and growing the middle class,” Trudeau tweeted.
Biden and Trudeau, along with their spouses, had a private dinner at the prime minister’s residence on Thursday and will meet officially Friday. Biden will also address Canada’s parliament alongside Trudeau.