{"id":3847,"date":"2024-11-19T05:55:46","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T05:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/?p=3847"},"modified":"2024-11-19T05:56:20","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T05:56:20","slug":"tough-talk-needed-on-border-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/?p=3847","title":{"rendered":"Tough Talk Needed on Border Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Tough talk needed on border issues<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8220;Lay low for 14 days and you&#8217;re in as an illegal&#8221; <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul>\n<li>National Post<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>14 Nov 2024<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>JAMIE SARKONAK<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"494\" height=\"428\" src=\"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/image-4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3848\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/image-4.jpeg 494w, https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/image-4-300x260.jpeg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 494px) 100vw, 494px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong>With the threat of mass deportations from the U.S., and a policy in Canada that allows unauthorized residents to claim asylum should they lay low for 14 days, it\u2019s only rational for would-be claimants to try, Jamie Sarkonak says.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, as the rules stand, migrants from the United States can cross into Canada, wait two weeks, and become eligible to file a refugee claim here. The northern border sure must be looking like a home-free line, now that Donald Trump has been elected on a promise to carry out mass deportations of illegal migrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, if there was ever a time Canada needed to send a very loud, very public, \u201cno more Mr. Nice Guy\u201d message to economically motivated asylum seekers \u2014 firm messaging backed up by policy changes to ward their numbers off \u2014 it\u2019s right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The numbers are already too high. Last year, nearly 150,000 people staked refugee claims here, rendering us the fifth-largest destination for asylum seekers that year. Two years\u2019 worth of asylum claims are inching their way through the immigration system, many of these from friendly not-at-war countries that have no business sending us thousands of refugees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>India, Nigeria, and Mexico are where the largest number of claims come from, but there are many others that shouldn\u2019t be sending refugees our way. Each successful applicant \u2014 from friendly, at-peace countries \u2014 is a potential online advertisement for immigration services online; that is, potential inspiration for others looking to claim refugee status. Of course, many of these claimants aren\u2019t actually in danger, as required by law, and are willing to travel home, prompting immigration consultants to make warnings against doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With the threat of mass deportations from the U.S., and a policy in Canada that allows unauthorized residents to claim asylum should they lay low for 14 days, it\u2019s only rational for would-be claimants to try. It could very well be a painful squeeze \u2014 the U.S. received 1.2 million asylum claims last year alone, and some fraction of that number can be expected to divert to the north come 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The trek to Canada will be a rational one for many. To observers on the outside, we\u2019re the country that welcomes everyone, hands out bags of free food, offers free care, has loads of jobs to fill along with land, oh so much land. We know this isn\u2019t actually how Canada works, but they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seriously. Extensive immigration influencer videos have advertised Canadian \u201cfree food\u201d to those abroad, which have no doubt made this country a more attractive place to attempt asylum. Rent is often covered by the Canadian tax base as the wait for claim adjudication drags on \u2014 which ultimately puts low-income Canadians in competition with migrants for housing. Some also end up competing with homeless Canadians, taking up critical space in shelters from Vancouver to Toronto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>MANY OF THESE CLAIMANTS AREN\u2019T ACTUALLY IN DANGER.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In health care, it\u2019s a similar problem. These populations strain the health-care system: the Star reported last week that \u201cMidwives and physicians in emergency departments said they\u2019re seeing significantly more uninsured clients accessing care at later stages of a complicated pregnancy or an already developed cancer or AIDS.\u201d The uninsured being, in part, migrants who are in Canada illegally. Bad deal for us, good deal for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Between rosy influencer advertising and borders-open messaging from our own Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a lot more needs to be done to reverse the perception that Canada is a welcome home for economic \u201crefugees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The incoming Trump administration has been strong out of the gate in turning around the perception of the United States as a bottomless bread basket of free amenities. Federal and state governments have rolled out unauthorized-friendly initiatives for a while now: feds have done their best to soften deportation rules, and some state governments have offered perks like pre-paid debit cards for migrants, as well as free rent. But Trump\u2019s messaging has been clear that deportations are coming, and his border-enforcer-to-be, Tom Homan, is just as forceful: \u201cYou better start packing now, cause you\u2019re going home,\u201d Homan told a crowd earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We haven\u2019t been so firm. Visitor visa rules were tightened this week, but the home-free-in-twoweeks line remains in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of our country\u2019s messaging includes tepid inward-facing assurances that everything is under control. The faceless blob that is the Canadian administrative state says there\u2019s nothing to worry about: the RCMP learned from post-2016 migration which \u201cprovided us with the tools and insight necessary to address similar types of occurrences.\u201d The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) says, \u201cwe are ready to respond and adapt as needed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Homan, meanwhile, isn\u2019t raving about our competency, stating in a recent TV interview that the northern border is an \u201cextreme national security vulnerability\u201d and that \u201ctough conversations\u201d are soon to be had with Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Meanwhile, Immigration Minister Marc Miller is nonchalant, telling the Globe and Mail: \u201cWe will always be acting in the national interest and those measures that we move to undertake, regardless of what decision is taken by the new administration, to make sure that our borders are secure, that people that are coming to Canada do so in a regular pathway, and the reality that not everyone is welcome here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, that sure sends a message. \u201cNot everyone is welcome here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each statement from Canadian officials has the same bland, inoffensive lack of substance that could only come from either a comms department trained to generate few words of meaning or an AI text generator. None are backed by the force of strong, loophole-closing policy change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Miller\u2019s job right now isn\u2019t just to soothe Canadians with words as bland as beige walls. He has to dispel years of false impressions of Canadian life inspired by a multitude of enthusiastic foreign-language Youtube and Tiktok howto vlogs about immigration, with rhetoric and hard policy. Right now, he\u2019s falling short.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tough talk needed on border issues &#8220;Lay low for 14 days and you&#8217;re in as an illegal&#8221; Currently, as the rules stand, migrants from the United States can cross into Canada, wait two weeks, and become eligible to file a refugee claim here. The northern border sure must be looking like a home-free line, now [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[806,228,92,127,2105,41,2734],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3847"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3847"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3850,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3847\/revisions\/3850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadafirst.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}