Borders Are Not Meant To Be Breached Uninvited

"Designating the U.S.A. a 'safe' country and passing an order-in council accordingly would stop the flow across the border. I don't see this as a violation of the Safe Third Country agreement, but if it is, then we should unilaterally end the agreement."
"But I'm afraid the government doesn't want to stop the flow and hopes a large portion of the population will agree to keep the flow coming."
James Bissett, (former) head, Canadian immigration service

"The fact that we have extremely low unemployment, we're seeing labour shortages in certain parts of the country, [means] it is a good time to reflect that we are b ringing in immigrants who are going to keep our economy growing."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"Consider the geography of many Canadian ports of entry -- they are not right on the border, they're often set back several hundred metres. And yet we deem the 'country of last presence' to be the U.S., not Canada."
"Why doesn't Canada choose to interpret the STCA [Safe Third Country Agreement] in such a way that a person attempting to cross 100 metres to the left of a port of entry is simply apprehended, brought to the port of entry and processed per the intended operation of the STCA -- that is, turned back to the United States?"
Howard Anglin, former chief of staff to previous government's Minister of Immigration

Asylum seekers cross the Canadian border at Champlain, N.Y., on August 4, 2017. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

"In the past, if someone had failed to comply with the regulations in another country, Canada was not willing to take a chance on them, to admit them and to ask them to follow our rules."
"There was a low-level rumour circulating that it's possible to bring these people in both for study permits and job offers."
"I knew there was a chance that [her client] could be refused, but there seemed to be a new willingness on the part of Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada to give preferential treatment to people who would otherwise do an irregular [border] entry, but were clearly trying to comply with the regulations and do it through legal pathways."
"With the political atmosphere between the Canadian and U.S. governments, I don't think the federal government wants to be perceived as rolling out the welcome mat for people who were essentially illegal workers in the U.S.A."
"It might also be a bit of a floodgates rationale in that -- it could start a stampede."
Vanessa Routley, immigration lawyer, Ottawa

A family claiming to be from Columbia is arrested by RCMP officers as they cross the border into Canada near Champlain, N.Y. Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press

Ms. Routley was the key to unlocking the door of visa entry to Canada for a woman who had crossed the Mexico-U.S. border seventeen years ago, living since then in the U.S. as an undocumented migrant. She has now succeeded in obtaining legal entry into Canada through a successful application for a Canadian study visa, and this despite her undocumented status. "That's the first time I've ever had a stamp in my passport", she exulted happily.

As far as Canada's Immigration Department is concerned as long as a visa applicant is not criminally inadmissible, is in good health, can support themselves financially and is in possession of all required paperwork -- and agrees to leave the country on the expiry date of the visa, access to Canada will be granted via a study or work visa. An undocumented migrant who has obviously flouted the law in a neighbouring country is of no concern to immigration authorities granting a temporary visa just as long as an applicant meets all other points of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

That that same undocumented migrant thought it useful to bypass legal requirements in the United States in favour of living illegally there and finding legal obstacles to full acceptance along with inconveniences such as driver's licenses being withheld, holds no stigma in the Canadian system, despite the official naivette in trusting that someone who flouts the law in one country won't hesitate in doing so in another; such as observing the need to depart once the visa has expired.

In any event, the prime minister of the country who has in his three-year tenure harmed the nation's economy, straitened the extraction and export of petroleum products which represent a large portion of the country's natural resources and potential revenues, placing thousands out of work with his gradual, hidden agenda to continue throwing obstacles in the way of oil flowing from source to tidewater, now signals illegals that Canada welcomes them as 'immigrants' eager to take the jobs languishing for want of workers.

But legal entry does not represent the 'norm' in the action of tens of thousands of people either transiting the U.S. by obtaining American temporary visas only for the purpose of entering Canada, or others having lived illegally or on expired visas for years in the  United States, casually crossing the border at illegal points, then declaring themselves 'refugees'. In the knowledge that processing can take years, enabling them to take full advantage of Canada's generous social welfare systems.

In the knowledge, furthermore, that under Canadian law, those whose applications are rejected are able to remain in the country while appealing from one jurisdictional legal level to another. The United States can hardly be expected to have sympathy with Canadian discomfort over the flood of illegal entrants from their country to Canada. They are, after all, struggling under the very same conditions of illegal entries and the determination of tens of thousands to join the already-existing one-and-a-half or so million undocumented, illegals already in the U.S.

As for the safe first-country agreement where neighbouring countries agree that the first country of entry be responsible for those entering, relieving the other country of an obligation to be responsible for the presence of migrants, this represents a common agreement throughout Europe. Despite which members of the European Union have come to the point where they disagree strenuously with one another; Western Europe struggling to absorb huge numbers of migrants, Eastern Europe defiantly refusing them entry.

"A question has to be asked: if you are a genuine asylum seeker, why have you not sought asylum in the first safe country that you arrived in? Because France is not a country where anyone would argue it is not safe in any way whatsoever, and if you are genuine then why not seek asylum in your first safe country?" — British Home Secretary Sajid Javid. "When I heard about grooming gangs where almost every individual involved is of Pakistani heritage, I can't help noting that. But I can't help noting the fact that Rochdale is a town that means something to me and I'm also of Pakistani heritage. I'm the British home secretary, My job is to protect the British public." 

The federal government spends an average of about $14,000 for each asylum seeker crossing into Canada outside of legal border points — a cost that's expected to rise as the case backlog grows, says Canada's budget watchdog.
In a report released Thursday — Costing Irregular Migration Across Canada's Southern Border — Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux said the total cost for the asylum claims process was about $340 million in 2017-2018 and is expected to rise to $396 million in 2019-2020.

"Our estimates suggest that they have not budgeted enough, which will result in increased backlog at the Immigration and Refugee Board," he said.
The $173 million was based on an annual influx of 5,000 to 8,000 individuals, rather than the actual number of 23,000 per year, Giroux said.
The costs tallied in the report are for federal organizations such as the RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Immigration and Refugee Board. They do not include expenses incurred by the provinces, territories or municipalities, which pick up costs related to social services.
CBC -- November 201