US-Canada Asylum Agreement: The End of Roxham Road

The US and Canada have agreed to amend their asylum agreement to stop illegal migration. Canada now wants to create more capacity for legal immigration. In other respects, too, the states are brotherly.

Meetings between the US President and the Canadian Prime Minister are actually routine. The neighboring countries work closely together and conflicts are rare. But this time, Joe Biden’s visit to Ottawa was awaited with some excitement.

On the one hand, because the US President did not – as is usually the case – visit the northern neighboring country immediately after his election, but only now. And on the other hand because of recently growing differences in immigration policy. Nevertheless, Biden was enthusiastically received in the Canadian Parliament.

Illegal immigration to Canada

Word had already got around that the two governments had agreed on changes to the so-called “Safe Third Country Agreement” after months of negotiations. Canada had pushed for a modification after more and more migrants had recently entered the United States illegally.

That should now come to an end, according to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau: “Both our countries believe in safe, fair and orderly migration, the protection of refugees and border security.” Therefore, the agreement will now also be applied to asylum seekers who cross the border on non-official routes. From midnight, the Canadian police are to implement the agreement and hand over irregular migrants to the US authorities at the nearest border crossing.

No way across Roxham Road

That means the end for Roxham Road, a border road between the US state of New York and the Canadian province of Quebec, which more and more migrants had recently used. Last year alone, 40,000 people came to Canada via the USA, mainly from South and Central America, but also from Asia, to apply for asylum there.

The reason for this was a loophole in the agreement concluded in 2004, which stipulates that they must be turned away at legal border crossings – but not if they enter Canada illegally. This should be over now.

More legal immigration

In return, the Canadian government wants to take in more migrants legally, according to US President Biden: “By doing so, we are also fulfilling our joint obligation to address the historic extent of migration. Since we created special opportunities for immigration in the USA, the Numbers have fallen sharply.”

It is therefore good that Canada, with a similar program, has created the opportunity for up to 15,000 additional migrants to come to Canada from countries in the western hemisphere, said the US President.

United States and Canada close ranks

Biden and Trudeau also praised the deep connection between the two countries in the face of numerous challenges such as the climate crisis, the aftermath of the corona pandemic and the Ukraine war. And even when dealing with the smartphone app TikTok, Trudeau emphasized the unity between Canada and the United States: “We made a decision similar to that of the United States. There are concerns about privacy and security. That’s why we banned TikTok on government phones.”

As a father of teenagers, Trudeau is also concerned about his children’s privacy and safety. That’s why he’s glad they can no longer access TikTok on their phones, which were also set up by the government. That was pretty frustrating for her. “Does that also apply to us?” they would have asked. “Yes, I was,” Trudeau had to justify.