CTV News cameras in Quebec captured images of a family, including a baby in a car seat, illegally crossing the U.S.-Canada border on Monday.
As is standard practice, the migrants were taken into custody by police and quickly handed over to the Canadian Border Services Agency, which typically releases them within hours.
“There’s no doubt that it’s touching so we try to make their misery as short as possible,” an RCMP officer told reporters gathered near the border in Lacolle, Que.
Although most of the border jumpers are released and connected with social services while they make a refugee claim, about three per cent are detained for more screening and possible deportation.
CBSA’s Dominique Fillion told reporters that they may be detained if they don’t have identification, are thought to pose a security threat to Canada or if CBSA believes they won’t show up to hearings.
CBSA uses cameras and other means to monitor unmanned entry points, but with the border stretching 8,891 kilometres, there is little they can do to prevent the crossings.
There were 452 border crossers entering Quebec to claim asylum last month -- a figure three times higher than the previous January, according to CBSA. There has also been a spike in the numbers crossing into Manitoba and British Columbia.
Immigration lawyer Chantal Desloges told CTV’s Power Play Monday that many of those who landed in the United States legally before entering Canada, “would have all of the appropriate security screening to the point that Canada probably does not need to be hypervigilant about them.”
Even if they had come into the U.S. surreptitiously, according to Desloges, “when someone makes a refugee claim in Canada, the first thing Canada does is a pretty comprehensive security check on them.”
Those who make refugee claims can expect hearing within 60 days, where an adjudicator decides whether the claimants have “a well-founded fear or persecution or not,” according to Desloges.
If their claims fail, they can appeal. If those appeals fail, they can seek judicial reviews by a federal court. Eventually, they may be ordered deported to their country of origin, according to Desloges.
Desloges urged people not to pre-judge the refugee claimants. “If you look at where the majority of them are from, they are from refugee-producing countries like Somalia, for example, which has a very high acceptance rate in Canada,” she said.
“So on the face of it, it seems like they may indeed be legitimate refugees very uncomfortable with the situation in the United States and (who) are not feeling like they’re going to get a fair hearing.”
Desloges said she expects to see “a lot more” border crossers as winter turns to spring.
With a report from CTV Montreal’s Annie Demelt
