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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe trickle of refugees fleeing the U.S. to Canada could become a deluge in the spring
OTTAWA As desperate asylum seekers continue to flee the Trump administrations immigration crackdown by crossing into Canada, concern is growing here over whether the country will be able to cope if the number of migrants keeps growing.
Stories of migrants hauling children and suitcases across frozen fields and snow-covered ditches into Canada have become headline news. The asylum seekers, who are fleeing President Trumps travel and refugee bans as well as stepped-up arrests of undocumented immigrants, have received warm welcomes. But opposition politicians are criticizing the government of Justin Trudeau for being too harsh or too lax in its approach.
In a recent survey from the Angus Reid Institute, a Vancouver-based opinion research firm, most Canadians were supportive of the governments decision to maintain its target of accepting 40,000 refugees in 2017. But 25 percent wanted to see Ottawa enact a travel ban similar to the Trump order.
In answer to a separate question, 40 percent said they think Canada is accepting too many refugees. The number of refugee claims has spiked since the election of Trump. On the Quebec border with the United States alone, there were 452 claims in January compared with 137 in the same month a year ago.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/02/23/the-trickle-of-refugees-fleeing-the-u-s-to-canada-could-become-a-deluge-in-the-spring/?tid=pm_world_pop&utm_term=.481a4e804c28
HoneyBadger
(2,297 posts)Trudeau is
jmg257
(11,996 posts)"We will continue to strike that balance between a rigorous system and accepting people who need help."
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Canadian police said on Monday they had bolstered their presence at the Quebec border and that border authorities had created a temporary refugee center to process a growing number of asylum seekers crossing from the United States.
The number of people making refugee claims at Quebec-U.S. border crossings more than doubled from 2015 to 2016. Last month, 452 people made claims in Quebec compared with 137 in January 2016.
The influx is straining police and community resources in the western prairie province of Manitoba and in Quebec, where cabs drop asylum seekers off meters away from the Quebec-U.S.border, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said.
http://www.newsweek.com/justin-trudeau-canada-immigration-border-border-crossing-559340