According to internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents, the Biden-Harris government is expediting the processing of asylum seekers at the U.S.-Canada border. This follows a surge in northern migrant crossings.
The should involve changes to the operation of the “Safe Third Country” asylum agreement between the U.S. and Canada. Migrants subject to the agreement are supposed to be barred from seeking asylum in the U.S. and can be sent back to Canada, which provides ample safe refuge opportunities. Likewise, Canada can also return asylum seekers crossing into its territory from the U.S.
DHS aims to streamline the implementation of the Safe Third Country Agreement, as migrants often delay returns by consulting with lawyers at length and spending time trying to build a case that they are exempt from the agreement’s terms. However, the agency insists the changes will not compromise migrants’ right to a full asylum review.
In fiscal year 2024, 16,500 migrants were apprehended after crossing the U.S.-Canada border illegally, an increase from 10,000 in 2023 and 2,200 in 2022. This is the highest recorded number for the northern frontier.
The resources allocated to the 5,500-mile northern border are much smaller than those allocated to the southern border, which has seen millions of illegal crossings under the Biden-Harris government.
Nevertheless, the Canadian frontier is still a point of vulnerability, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Terrorist Screening Dataset (TSDS) recording that almost 86 percent of suspected terrorists entering the U.S. in fiscal year 2023 did so via the northern border.
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