Canadian police and migrant aid groups are bracing for an influx of asylum-seekers fleeing President-elect Donald Trump's United States at the same time Canada deals with record numbers of refugee claimants and is trying to bring in fewer immigrants, reports Reuters.
The former and now future U.S. president swept to power this week in part on a promise to enact the largest deportation in American history.
Canadian police have been preparing for months, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sergeant Charles Poirier on Thursday.
"We knew a few months ago that we had to start prepping a contingency plan because if he comes into power, which now he will in a few months, it could drive illegal migration and irregular migration into (the province of) Quebec and into Canada," he told Reuters.
"Worst-case scenario would be people crossing in large numbers everywhere on the territory. ... Let's say we had 100 people per day entering across the border, then it's going to be hard because our officers will basically have to cover huge distances in order to arrest everyone."
When Trump first came to power in 2017, thousands of asylum-seekers crossed into Canada between formal border crossings to file refugee claims – overwhelmingly at Roxham Road, near the Quebec-New York border.
Roxham Road is no longer an option: Canada and the U.S. expanded a bilateral agreement so that now asylum-seekers trying to cross anywhere along the 4,000-mile border, instead of only at formal crossings, are turned back unless they meet a narrow exemption.
This means people crossing from the U.S. to file claims must sneak across undetected and hide out for two weeks before seeking asylum – a potentially dangerous prospect, immigrant advocates say.
But they add people are already doing it.
"When you don't create legitimate pathways, or when you only create pathways where people have to do the impossible to receive safety, you know, unfortunately, people are going to try to do the impossible," said Abdulla Daoud, director of The Refugee Centre in Montreal, which provides services.
