Canada’s “Roxham Refugee Road” Boarder Crisis Update

Canada and U.S. reach deal to close Roxham Road: sources
More From Max Bernier HERE

March 23.23 ~According to Radio-Canada, Ottawa will welcome an unspecified number of illegal immigrants through official channels to assist the U.S.

Canada and the U.S. have reached a deal on Roxham Road, permitting Ottawa to close the unofficial border crossing at the border.

According to Radio-Canada, Ottawa will welcome an unspecified number of illegal immigrants through official channels to assist the U.S.

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser have allegedly worked with the U.S. recently to reach a deal. However, specific details of the agreement have yet to be made public.

“It’s an issue we take extraordinarily seriously,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters Wednesday evening.

“We have worked closely with our American counterparts for many months…to ensure the integrity of our borders and protect vulnerable asylum seekers.”

Roxham Road has caused significant tension between Ottawa, Quebec and the U.S. because of an influx of asylum seekers entering Canada since 2017.

WATCH: Rebel News journalists @LincolnMJay and @TheVoiceAlexa went undercover for a series of reports to expose the industry behind illegal immigration and the human trafficking of refugees to Canada’s most notorious crossing point, Roxham Road.https://t.co/m7Mm6rIPpO— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) March 23, 2023

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre openly called for Ottawa to close Roxham Road in January.

“It is not legal to cross there. That is a reality,” said Poilievre.

The Bloc Quebecois echoed those sentiments. However, PPC leader Maxime Bernier was the only one to visit the unofficial border crossing after expressing concerns for several years.

“I am at Roxham Road, and as you can see, I cannot go any further as the police do not want us here,” said Bernier in late February.

“We at the PPC have a solution for that. We are not American — we won’t build a wall — but we can build a fence and [instruct] the RCMP to do their job.”

“We must stop [illegal] migration and ensure our borders are respected.”

First signed in 2002, the Safe Third Country Agreement remains controversial despite some recent tweaks since 2018. 

Under the pact, asylum seekers in Canada or the US must make their claim in the first country they enter. But a loophole in that agreement allows those who enter Canada via an unofficial crossing to remain in the country without the immediate threat of deportation.

However, asylum seekers can still hear their appeals in Canada if they enter at an unofficial crossing like Roxham Road, where thousands of migrants continue to pour into the country. 

“These people are jumping the queue,” added Bernier. “We must have the courage to demand respect [for our sovereignty].”

In 2022, 39,171 illegal immigrants entered Quebec through Roxham.

Quebec Premier François Legault asked Ottawa to permanently close the entry point last month, citing the continued strain Roxham migrants put on the province’s social services and healthcare systems.

PM Trudeau says he’s hopeful “to have an announcement soon” alongside President Biden addressing Canada’s infamous illegal point of entry, Roxham Road.

HELP US: https://t.co/Xtni27P1u8 pic.twitter.com/SlGFELdW9M— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) March 22, 2023

Amid the province bolstering funding to community groups that help migrants, New York City’s mayor revealed his administration provided bus tickets to illegal immigrants wanting to leave the city, including those travelling north of the border.

As reported by the New York Post, some migrants in the Big Apple are receiving complimentary tickets to Plattsburgh, NY, where they then travel about half an hour by shuttle or taxi to cross into Quebec at Roxham Road.

“It is time for Justin Trudeau to put out a new tweet to say not to come anymore because we have exceeded our reception capacity,” said Legault. “We have problems with housing, school capacity, and hospital staff. At some point, Trudeau has to send a new message.”

The federal government revealed they transported 5,300 migrants entering Quebec into mostly Windsor and Niagara Falls, Ontario, with the former since requesting federal funding to assist with providing them “temporary accommodations.”

The IRCC said about 3,300 migrants seeking asylum in Ontario came through Roxham Road.

Poilievre called for Trudeau to present a concrete plan to close the unofficial border crossing along the Quebec-New York border, suggesting Ottawa did that during COVID and can do it again.

For between US$50 and US$70 per trip, transport workers will take migrants roughly 25 minutes north at Roxham Road, where they illegally walk across the Canadian border to seek asylum.

MORE: https://t.co/jzoue7QSw1 pic.twitter.com/CO1qCqbJH4— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) March 18, 2023

Ottawa expelled asylum seekers in March 2020 to limit the spread of COVID until late 2021. Trudeau admitted this approach was “reasonably effective.” 

However, a surge of illegal immigration at Roxham in 2021 and 2022 cost taxpayers nearly $87.8 million to pay for “temporary accommodations for unvaccinated asymptomatic asylum seekers without a suitable quarantine plan.”

While unvaccinated Canadians could not travel via plane or train domestically and internationally, Ottawa accepted refugee and asylum claimants “regardless of their vaccination status.” 

According to government data, nearly two-thirds of asylum claims in Canada last year occurred in Quebec, with most coming from Haiti, Turkey, Colombia, Chile, Pakistan and Venezuela.

Shared from https://www.rebelnews.com/canada_and_the_u_s_reach_deal_to_close_roxham_road_say_sources

For most of its history, it was possible to freely cross the border via Roxham Road, since it largely carried local traffic. Canada established a small customs station just north of the border; the U.S. never followed suit, leaving Roxham an uncontrolled border crossing, even after Canada closed its customs station in the 1950s. That ended when Canadian authorities decided, out of concerns that the terrorist killings at the 1972 Munich Olympics could also occur at the upcoming 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, roughly 60 km (37 mi) north of the border, to barricade all the uncontrolled land border crossings between Quebec and New York, as well as the neighboring U.S. state of Vermont. Since then Roxham has officially been a dead end in both directions at the border.

It is still possible, though not legal in either country, to cross the border on foot there, and starting in 2017 Roxham Road carried far more traffic than it ever had as a legal entry into Canada when refugees, some awaiting a decision on permanent legal status in the U.S., fearing a negative outcome due to stricter immigration policies of Donald Trump’s presidential administration but most having just briefly passed through the U.S. to get to Canada, began entering Canada via Roxham in order to seek political asylum there.[4] Later, immigrants began coming to the United States specifically to make the crossing at Roxham and apply for asylum in Canada, leading to criticism of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government for his apparent failure to enforce Canadian immigration law and a lawsuit that led to the Safe Third Country Agreement between the two countries being declared unconstitutional in Canada, a verdict since overturned on appeal. Over the next two years, around 90 percent of those who irregularly entered Canada seeking asylum did so via Roxham Road, making it a metonym for the complications of Canada’s immigration policies.[5][6][7]

Housing the asylum seekers required building facilities at the border,[8] a camp nearby (and then in Montreal’s Olympic Stadium) at considerable expense to the Canadian government, and led to white nationalist and anti-immigration groups protesting near the border crossing, attracting counterdemonstrations from their opponents. Only when the COVID-19 pandemic required the border be closed completely did this traffic significantly diminish, resulting in the U.S. government detaining those whom Canada returned after refusing them entry and beginning deportation proceedings against them, a controversial move since many of them had cited fear for their safety or freedom in their native countries;[9] Roxham and other irregular Canadian border crossings were reopened in late 2021. Shared from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxham_Road

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March 1, 2023

Rebel News journalist assaulted by taxi driver at Roxham Road

Rebel News journalist Alexa Lavoie was assaulted by a human smuggler while reporting on the illegal immigration that’s happening at the Roxham Road border crossing.

When journalists get assaulted by human traffickers at an illegal border while doing their job, that means that action needs to be taken and fast!

Rebel News has been investigating the human trafficking and humanitarian crisis occurring at Roxham Road south of Montreal, Quebec. 

This road, adjacent to the American border, is the site of the majority of illegal border crossings to Canada. And the inaction of the Canadian government to secure the border, along with complicit American politicians who do nothing to secure their own borders, are fueling the lucrative business of human trafficking.

To learn more, please visit StopTraffickingToCanada.com. There you can sign our petition and send an e-mail to the Mayor of New York, Eric Adams, to stop assisting in migrant trafficking by buying illegal migrants bus tickets to the Quebec border.

The problem we experiment at our border is not being taken into consideration and the problem continues to evolve faster than ever.

Canadians face a burden problem because they are the ones who are funding all the expenses regarding this illegal immigration. 82% of illegals crossing at Roxham Road are put up in taxpayer-funded hotels, and those outside of hotels are displacing homeless people in Montreal shelters.

Human traffickers, those operating at taxi services, are part of an upstate New York cottage industry, bringing people to the border for a fee. Some are upfront about what they do, and others want to remain in the shadows.

But one of them assaulted me while I was reporting on human trafficking through our illegal border at Roxham Road.

The RCMP officer was very helpful in my situation. A despicable human being who is willing to beat a woman in front of families and children. With no fear of being arrested!

This man is a danger to the people he claims to help, and to anyone who stands in the way of his next trafficking payday. And that’s why we are going after him! Rebel News has hired a great lawyer for me and he is working with the police in New York State and with the RCMP.

My lawyer is working to retrieve the footage from the cameras that line the border. I have filed a complaint in New York State and I am going to get this violent human smuggler off the street. But doing this is not cheap. I need a lot of help, and because I am dealing with two separate countries, it’s complicated, but I think it’s worth it to make Canada and the USA just a little bit safer.

Please go to StandWithAlexa.com to help me offset these legal costs.
Shared from https://www.rebelnews.com/rebel_news_journalist_assaulted_at_roxham_road

Canada’s refugee road: a lifeline for some, a political headache for others

Roxham Road, linking New York state and Quebec, is by far the busiest crossing for asylum seekers, thanks to a legal ‘loophole’

Mohammed Al-Hashemi had been in the United States for two months when his phone rang. There was no caller ID. “I can take you straight to Canada,” said the man, before warning: “It may cost you a lot of money.”

“I told him, ‘OK.’ I was ready to go, ready to move to the next step,” said Al-Hashemi, who had been a lawyer in Yemen before he was forced to flee.

He was driven the next day to Roxham Road, which runs between Quebec and Plattsburgh, New York. After walking across the border, Al-Hashemi made his way to Montreal, where he stayed at a refugee shelter until his asylum claim was accepted.

Since 2017, more than 60,000 asylum seekers have entered Canada through such irregular routes from the US, due to what some have called a “loophole” in a treaty between the two countries. The Safe Third Country Agreement, which has been in effect since 2004, stipulates that asylum seekers in either country must seek refugee protection in whichever country they first arrive and will be turned away from ports of entry to the other nation.

But this agreement doesn’t apply to irregular crossings. And along the 5,525-mile border, Roxham Road is by far the most popular irregular crossing point. In the first three months of 2022, Royal Canadian Mounted Police intercepted more than 7,000 asylum seekers crossing into Quebec, primarily at Roxham Road.

This influx is causing growing friction between provincial and federal authorities, prompting Quebec’s premier, François Legault, this month to ask Canada’s government to shut down Roxham Road, arguing that the province doesn’t have the funds or housing to handle the number of asylum seekers seen in recent months.

Refugee advocates disagree with those claims. “The refugee organizations in Montreal have said very clearly that they do have capacity,” said Wendy Ayotte, founder of the Quebec-based group Bridges Not Borders, who argued that without the reliable route of Roxham Road, asylum seekers would resort to more dangerous options. “A definitive closure will be a major driver for smuggling,” said Ayotte.

Although it is not an official port of entry, the crossing at Roxham Road is overseen by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and adheres to a clearly established system.

Day and night, taxis drop off asylum seekers. Some have just arrived in the United States on a visitor visa, others have been living there for years. Cab drivers yell out “French!” or “English!” to police waiting on the Quebec side. As people approach the border, they are arrested, read their rights and taken to shelters in Montreal.

Closing Roxham Road would exacerbate smuggling that already occurs along the border, said Craig Damian Smith, a senior research associate at Toronto Metropolitan University. He added that most asylum seekers using smugglers have already had an asylum claim rejected in the US – or are undocumented.

Ali, who requested his real name not be used, is a small business owner who fled from Yemen to escape the lawlessness and violence of the country’s brutal civil war. For the past seven years, he has lived in Buffalo, New York, waiting for the resolution of his asylum claim, but his patience is running out. “If nothing is new for me in a couple of months, I’m going to try to go [to Canada],” he said.

Smugglers in Buffalo offer transportation to Roxham Road for $1,000-$2,000 per person. To avoid raising police suspicion, they pose as Uber or Lyft drivers by placing company stickers on their windshields. Ali initially contemplated hiring a smuggler before realizing he could just take a bus to Plattsburgh.

The existence of smugglers is common knowledge among Roxham Road’s taxi drivers working Plattsburgh’s bus stop. Cab drivers also meet with “runners”, who charge refugees large sums to be driven to Plattsburgh from all over the country, said local cab driver Wayne, who asked that his full name not be used.

While most irregular crossings occur at Roxham Road, some asylum seekers take more dangerous routes. Seidu Mohammed feared persecution in his native Ghana for being bisexual., and in December 2016, he traveled to Manitoba on a journey that almost cost him his life.

Mohammed and a companion found a driver in Minnesota willing to take them to the border for $200 each. After crossing into Manitoba, they walked for hours in the snow before flagging down a truck. Both men lost their fingers to frostbite.

Mohammed’s asylum claim was accepted, and he has since founded a soccer program for underprivileged families and new refugees in Canada.

At the time of his crossing, he was unaware that Roxham Road existed. “If I’d known, I would’ve gone there instead.”

While Quebec is concerned with the closure of Roxham Road, the legal framework of migration may soon be changing. Justin Trudeau has repeatedly said that Canada is negotiating a new version of the Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States. La Presse reported in December that these negotiations will close the “loophole” and halt irregular migration across the border.

How and when any amendments will take shape remains unclear. However, like the closure of Roxham Road, it’s speculated that an expanded agreement would affect smuggling.

“With an expansion of that sort, the smuggling would be even more intense and dangerous and costly,” said Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees.

Neela Hassan, 29, left Afghanistan in 2019, after her research on female education led to threats from the Taliban. Hassan took immigration classes, spoke with lawyers, and memorized her rights as an asylum seeker. Then, she flew to Plattsburgh and took a cab up to Roxham Road.

If the crossing hadn’t been accepting asylum seekers at the time, Hassan believes she would have resorted to using a smuggler.

“It’s hard to understand why someone would take a dangerous step like that. But sometimes you’re in a very desperate situation where you’re like, do it or die,” said Hassan.

“You take the risk because your life is at risk.”

Shared from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/25/canada-refugee-asylum-seekers-roxham-road

Max Bernier tells Ottawa to ‘put Canadians first’ in speech from Roxham Road

PPC leader Maxime Bernier says he does not oppose ‘genuine refugees’ entering the country legally, but he claims most entering from Roxham Road are simply ‘jumping the queue.’

Feb. 27/23 ~

Though federal opposition parties have called on Ottawa to resolve the Roxham Road migrant crisis, People’s Party leader Maxime Bernier attended the unofficial border crossing in person, speaking to the gravity of leaving the southern border unsecure.

On Saturday, Bernier addressed supporters in a video on social media where law enforcement officials prevented him from going where tens of thousands of migrants have entered the country illegally from the US.

We’re protesting at Roxham Road to have our borders respected. Just close it! pic.twitter.com/tAOwoKxuAW— Maxime Bernier (@MaximeBernier) February 25, 2023

“I am at Roxham Road, and as you can see, I cannot go any further as the police do not want us here… Illegal migrants can cross the border, but I cannot go near [unofficial point of entry],” said Bernier.

Several law enforcement officers in the background seemed unbothered by Bernier, who peacefully espoused the need for Canada to protect and secure its borders.

Bernier continued:

We at the PPC have a solution for that. We are not American – we won’t build a wall – but we can build a fence and [instruct] the RCMP to do their job.

We must stop [illegal] migration and ensure our borders are respected.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault firmly told Ottawa that migrants and asylum seekers could no longer come to Canada through Roxham Road, citing “thinly stretched” resources to accommodate more migrants.

“It is time for Justin Trudeau to put out a new tweet to say not to come anymore because we have exceeded our reception capacity,” said Legault, adding his government faces ongoing struggles with housing, school capacity, and hospital staff. 

“At some point, Trudeau has to send a new message.”

In 2017, Trudeau said Canada would “welcome” all those “fleeing persecution, terror, and war” in response to then-President Donald Trump’s rollback on immigration. 

Following the tweet, Roxham Road observed a sharp increase in migrants entering the country.

Since 2017, approximately 91,000 of 150,000 asylum seekers have entered the country through Roxham Road. In 2022, 39,171 asylum seekers crossed Quebec through the unofficial border crossing.

The PPC leader said we could not save the world from chaos and strife. He added that Canada’s first responsibility is its citizenry, as “it is a privilege to be Canadian.”

While he did not oppose those who seek refuge in Canada from persecution abroad, he clarified the importance of allowing “genuine refugees” to enter the country, which he claimed is not the case at Roxham Road.

Legault also claimed that most Roxham migrants “are not refugees.”

Though Quebec’s CAQ government said it would accept 23% of asylum seekers moving forward, recent polling indicates that most (60%) Quebecers want Roxham Road closed. A separate poll by Justice pour le Québec (Justice for Quebec) found that 68% of Quebecers strongly or moderately agree with that position.

“These people are jumping the queue,” continued Bernier. “We must have the courage to demand respect [for our sovereignty].”

Ottawa quietly expelled asylum seekers who entered Canada through Roxham Road in March 2020 to limit the spread of COVID until late 2021. Trudeau admitted this approach was “reasonably effective.” 

Trudeau responded Wednesday that his government could not resolve the border crisis with “simplistic solutions.” He claimed his government had been actively working with the US to entirely but compassionately close all unofficial crossings.

Legault reignited the issue last week after asking the prime minister to renegotiate the Safe Third Country Agreement when US President Joe Biden visits next month. He said the current deal has failed to curb the disproportionate flow of migrants into Quebec, which Trudeau acknowledged.

First signed in 2002, the Safe Third Country Agreement remains controversial despite some recent tweaks since 2018. 

Under the pact, asylum seekers in Canada or the US must make their claim in the first country they enter. But a loophole in that agreement allows those who enter Canada via an unofficial crossing to remain in the country without the immediate threat of deportation.

“If we took such an approach rather than dealing with people with dignity and respect, the result would likely be serious risks that would fall upon vulnerable migrants seeking haven in Canada,” said Immigration Minister Rick Fraser. 

He claimed that migrants would have to cross through a potentially dangerous portion of the border at this time of year if Ottawa closed Roxham Road.

Shared from https://www.rebelnews.com/max_bernier_tells_ottawa_to_put_canadians_first_in_speech_from_roxham_road