During a press conference on Friday March 24, 2023, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a plan to discourage illegal migration at illegal border crossings along Quebec and New York State and the now famous Roxham Road.
Roxham Road has seen an explosion of illegal migration into Canada with almost 40,000 asylum seekers illegally crossing the border in 2022.
The updated agreement between Canada and the United States will come into effect immediately at 12:01am on Saturday, March 25, 2023.
“At midnight tonight, police and border officers will enforce the agreement and return irregular border crossers to the closest port of entry with the United States,” said Trudeau.
The plan is to expand the “the Safe Third Country Agreement to apply not only at designated ports of entry, but across the entire land border, including internal waterways” with shuttle services provided by police and border officers to a legal port of entry.
Trudeau’s government promised it will crackdown on illegal migration it also agreed to accept 15,000 additional illegal migrants to “address forced displacement, as an alternative to irregular migration.”
The announcement comes after the Trudeau government has faced immense pressure for a month from Quebec Premier Francois Legault, and federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
In February Quebec’s Premier Francois Legault called on Justin Trudeau to shut down the illegal border crossing because the province has reached maximum capacity for its public services and resources and Poilievre called for Trudeau to shut it down within 30 days.
According to a PDF document posted on the Federal Register the new “Safe third country agreemnt” was finalized and sign in secret last year.
“The Canadian Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship and the Secretary finalized the Additional Protocol of 2022, signed in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on March 29, 2022, and in Washington, DC, United States, on April 15, 2022” the document states.
