Montreal, Canada – Donald Trump has been in the White House for less than three weeks, but the president of the United States has already said many people have said that there is a solid attack on the rights of immigrants and refugees.
The Republican leader has sent immigrants to Guantanamo Bay in Cuban for notorious concentration. More was pushed for deportation. Effectively banned asylum; And suspended the refugee resettlement program.
Trump has also used the risk of tariffs to put pressure on his country’s neighbors – Canada and Mexico – to take drastic measures on his own borders to prevent irregularities in the United States.
For Canadian rights supporters, the Trump administration’s anti -refugee policies cause danger bells, and they have called on Canada to send most of the asylum seekers to the Canadian border in search of protection to the United States. Close
“The US government itself becomes an agent of persecution of people inside its borders,” said Wendy Eyu, a co -founder of the bridge, a group of bridges, a group of bridges, a group of bridges on the New York border. “
“When we return people back to the United States as we are currently doing, it makes us involved in an anti -refugee government,” Ayute, who lives in Hyllak, a small city of Quebec, to Al Jazeera. Tell.
“This makes us interpreted as the possibility that this person will either be detained in a poor state or will be sent back to his home country.”
Canada-American border contract
This week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that the Trump administration had agreed to stay 30 days on planned taxes for Canadian goods after promises to tighten border security.
“About 10,000 frontline personnel are working and working on border protection,” Trudeau said in A. Social Media Post.
Trump Trump Added On the social platform on its truth.
The Canadian government announced a plan to promote border security at the end of last year, immediately. Later, when Trump first threatened to impose rates. They 10 910M (1.3bn-Canadian-Dollar) scheme Inclusive Invest in drones, helicopters and other surveillance equipment.
The migration to the Canada-US border is already subject to severe rules.
In 2023, the two countries increased it, called the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA).
Under the agreement, which was first implemented in 2024, asylum seekers will have to get protection between the two countries in which they will arrive first. This means that no one who is already in the United States cannot claim political asylum in Canada unless they meet the specific exemption.
In this agreement, just before the admission ports applied to asylum claims, which means that those who entered Canada can irregularly hear their claims on Canada’s soil.
But in March 2023, Trudeau and the then president Joe Biden increased the STCA throughout the border, which included admission ports. It has made people even more difficult to access the Canadian political system.
Although there have been some high -level events trying to enter the United States from Canada, the number is lower than those who come to the Mexican border.
In the 2024 financial year, US Customs and Border Protection Reported Only less than 200,000 competitions are encountered with people trying to enter the country from Canada. On the US border with Mexico, more than 2.1 million competitions were registered in the same period.
I just got a call with President Trump. Canada adheres to our $ 1.3 billion border plan – which is reinforcing the border with new helicopters, technology and personnel, better harmony with our US partners, and in resources to stop the flow of fantasy There has been an increase. Almost…
– Justin Trudeau (@Justintrudeau) February 3, 2025
The Canadian government has defended the STCA as a “important tool” that helps both Canada and the United States effectively manage refugee claims.
“Canada and the United States are benefiting from the STCA in management of asylum claims on our common border, and we expect it,” a spokesman for immigration, refugees and citizenship Canada told Al Jazeera in an email. The series will continue. “
The spokesman said, “The Canadian government discourages the barrier crossing of the border crossing.”
“They are illegal, dangerous and dangerous. We have to respond to the crossing of the illegal northwest and southwest along the border as part of mutual interest to keep our long -lasting, mutual cooperation efforts and mutual interest to protect our communities They work together with their American counterparts.
However, rights supporters said the deal does not stop irregular migration, but only frustrated political asylum seekers forcibly seek a dangerous way to seek their safety.
Gori Srinivason is a co -executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR), a group involved in a legal challenge against the STCA. The organization has argued for years that the United States is not a safe place to seek asylum.
“Certainly, a series of executive orders and the steps we are now looking for as President Trump [have made] The United States is dangerously unsafe for US protection.
CCR, Amnesty International Canada and Canada’s Council of Churches have challenged the STCA on the basis that it violates the right to life, freedom and security as well as the right to equal security as Charter of Canadian rights and freedoms.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled on the right to life argument in 2023, saying that asylum seekers faced potential rights violations in the United States, security procedures to exempt such people in the STCA. There were those who were sent back if they could be in danger.
But the judges sent the case back to a lower federal court to rule the argument for equal protection. Srinivasan said the hearing is being expected this year, but no date has been fixed.
Canada does not need to wait for the courts to rule the STCA, he added.
“They should be able to assess what is going on under the chain right now [Trump] Executive Orders, “Srinivasan said, and clearly identify that the situation is no longer safe, that there is no effective right to political asylum in the United States.”
‘Who are we standing for?’
Net Dutton, a senior lawyer at the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies (CGRS) at the University of California College of Law, San Francisco, said it was a “a long time for political asylum” in the United States.
“It is clear that the Trump administration has brought an agenda to limit the rights and reservations of immigrants and asylum seekers,” he told Al Jazeera.
The CGRS is one of the plaintiffs in a case filed this week against the Trump administration’s effective ban on claims of political asylum. The ban was placed in one of the Republican president Executive steps On the first day of your tenure, January 20.
Dutton told Al Jazeera, using this order “to close all migrants to the southern border, which is being used to close all migrants, including asylum seekers.” Closing the opportunity to get. “
Nevertheless, Dutton also expressed suspicion that the United States is a safe place for asylum seekers.
He explained, “The fact is that the United States is eliminating spitting for the needy asylum for the needy people of protection. It is a very sign that the United States is not a safe haven for a safe haven. The country considers the contract. “
He added that the Trump administration can enforce more stringent rules for people who are already in the United States and want to access protection.
“We have only seen the overall increase in enmity with asylum seekers and have maintained their responsibilities to protect those who need refuge,” said Dutton.
“Certainly the fear is that Trump’s other administration will not only continue this pace but will significantly damage it.”
Back to Canada, the Bridges No Borders’ Eyute said the migration was also used by lawmakers as “political football” in the north of the border – and there is unlikely to change before the federal elections this year.
Yet, he said that politicians and Canadian voters have to face a critical moment.
“As a Canadian we have to ask ourselves, do we want to be in accordance with it? To what extent are we ready to comply … [with] A bullying and racist who has no concern for human life? He cited Trump.
“I think we have to see ourselves on the face and ask ourselves, ‘Who are we standing for?’
