President Joe Biden announced this Friday an agreement with Canada to stop illegal migration at the common border. “The United States and Canada will work together to discourage illegal border crossings,” Biden said during a speech in parliament in Ottawa.
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During his visit to Canada and in his appearance before Parliament, Joe Biden confirmed that the two countries had reached an immigration agreement that establishes that, among other things, Canada will accept 15,000 migrants from the American continent over the next year.
“The United States and Canada will work together to discourage illegal border crossings,” Biden said during a speech in parliament in Ottawa.
In the background of this understanding, there is the question of “Roxham”, an irregular passage through which some 40,000 immigrants arrived from the United States to Quebec last year, thus avoiding the official points of entry. Its closure worries migrant support NGOs.
The United States and Canada will work together to discourage illegal border crossings.
“The impact on refugees in extreme danger is devastating. The result will be to push people to attempt even more dangerous journeys in isolated areas” or push them towards human smugglers, Julia Sande, from Amnesty International, deplored to AFP.
These arrivals heated up the political environment in Canada, a country where this problem is relatively new, and caused some tension with Washington.
In the White House they assure understand Canadian concerns but point out that the issue is topical in the United States as well, in quite different proportions.
In January, the US authorities made more than 128,000 arrests for attempts to enter the national territory illegally from Mexico, and the Republican right is not missing an opportunity to accuse Biden of laxity in the face of the immigration phenomenon.
Reports prior to the meeting indicated that, in exchange for the closure of Roxham Road, Ottawa would agree to receive some 15,000 asylum seekers from Latin America through legal channels, as was just announced. The move would ease pressure on the US southern border.
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Biden and Trudeau had a bilateral meeting this Friday morning and appeared before the press this afternoon to offer details on some of the issues they discussed, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Haiti crisis and the flow of migrants between the two countries
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