Premier Legault worries that Trump’s measures aimed at implementing an immigration crackdown and strengthening border security could lead to more illegal border crossings
OTTAWA — Quebec Premier François Legault says his government will be “very, very careful” with the border because it does not want to “end up with a new Roxham” after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to expel migrants.
The premier asked his minister of public safety, François Bonnardel, to monitor the situation at the border “closely” and act quickly to respond to a possible influx of migrants.
Legault made the comments two days after Trump signed a flurry of executive orders aimed at implementing an immigration crackdown, strengthening border security, issuing a blanket ban on asylum and taking steps to block the citizenship of children born on American soil to unauthorized immigrants.
Such measures could lead to more illegal border crossings, the Quebec government anticipates.
Roxham is a rural road connecting the State of New York state and the province of Quebec, not far from Montreal. Thousands and thousands of asylum seekers have crossed the border irregularly via this route. Canada and the United States have since closed the loophole in the law and stipulated that people entering Canada at locations between designated land crossings are not eligible to make an asylum claim and will be sent back to the United States unless they are exempt.
“In Quebec, our reception capacity and our integration capacity are already exceeded,” Legault said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Last week, Quebec Public Safety Minister François Bonnardel announced that the Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police, would provide hundreds of officers to the 800-agent unit, which also includes officers from the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency. The unit is stationed in Quebec to respond to cases of illegal immigration.
Bonnardel also confirmed that 300 additional officers are on standby to respond within 24 to 48 hours if a sudden influx of migrants were to occur.
A provincial government source told the National Post that there have been no special interventions since Monday.
The office of federal Public Safety Minister David McGuinty said the latest data do not show any influx at the border, but that the federal government continues to “monitor the situation closely.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with the country’s premiers again on Wednesday to discuss Canada-U.S. relations and internal trade.
His office confirmed that the government is implementing its $1.3-billion border plan, which includes more personnel, new helicopters and drones, and increased law enforcement co-ordination.
“The Canada-U.S. border accounts for a fraction of illegal crossings into the U.S. and less than 0.2 per cent of fentanyl seized by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol,” noted Trudeau’s office in a written statement refuting Trump’s criticisms of the border.
Legault told reporters he stressed at the premiers’ meeting that his government would be “very, very careful” with the border.
Wednesday, Trump signed an executive order “that suspends the physical entry of aliens engaged in an invasion of the United States through the southern border” with Mexico.
Last year, Canada implemented a partial visa requirement for Mexican nationals to reduce the high number of asylum claims. According to Ottawa, this change “has reduced claims from Mexican citizens at airports across the country by 97 per cent.” At the same time, noted the federal government, “southbound illegal crossings by Mexican nationals from Canada into the U.S. also fell by 72 per cent compared to 2023.”
Earlier this week, Legault said he had asked Ottawa to strengthen the issuance of visas for asylum seekers, especially from India, “to ensure that there is a return ticket for these people, to ensure that they have a minimum asset, and to conduct judicial investigations on these people.”
The federal government says that less than one per cent of the total number of encounters of people illegally crossing U.S. borders occur at the Canada-U.S. border and that there has been an 89 per cent reduction in southbound illegal movement from June to December 2024.
Also, the government underlines that there has been a 77 per cent reduction in irregular asylum claims in Canada between 2023 and 2024 over the same period.
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