Canada is enforcing its border laws and is willing to put more resources in place to deal with the influx of asylum-seekers from the US, the federal public safety minister, Ralph Goodale, said Saturday.
Goodale visited Emerson, Manitoba, a small town on the US border north of Minnesota and North Dakota that has seen some 200 illicit crossings so far this year.
The number of such border-crossings has jumped in recent months, following the Trump administration’s plans to limit immigration and step up deportations. The Manitoba government has said the influx has created more demand for housing and other support services.
Migrants have been crossing through fields and ditches because, under the Canada-United States Safe Third Country Agreement, they are turned back at official border crossings if they have already made refugee claims in the US.
If they get on to Canadian soil before being apprehended, they are allowed to stay in Canada and go through the normal refugee-claim process.
“We all need to work together,” Goodale told reporters on Saturday. “We have to have good communication with one another. This is a set of issues that span national, provincial and local responsibilities.”
Goodale announced funding of $22,000 (CA$30,000) to cover extra costs borne by Emerson-Franklin’s volunteer fire department and other agencies in the community, saying more resources will become available.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency have shifted some resources in southern Manitoba to the Emerson area. The border services agency recently set up a trailer to help process the border-crossers.
The conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel has called on the Canadian government to ensure migrants who sneak across the border are charged with crossing illegally, but Goodale said such people cannot be charged if they make a refugee claim, at least until the claim is dealt with.
“Charges in relation to the crossing of the border cannot be laid until after the case of the particular individual under immigration rules has been finally disposed of,” Goodale said.
He also said the government was examining requests for more aid from refugee support agencies, but did not provide specifics.