Ottawa Agrees with US Decision to Strengthen Border Regulations for Asylum Seekers in Compliance with Legal Standards
WASHINGTON—The federal government states that upcoming procedural changes in the United States to tighten rules for asylum seekers arriving from Canada align with the Safe Third Country Agreement.
According to Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada spokesperson Matthew Krupovich, these changes “do not affect the terms of the agreement or the criteria for exemption or exception under the agreement.”
“We are in regular communication with the U.S. on various issues and are continuing to collaborate with them on this and other aspects of border cooperation,” said Krupovich in an emailed statement.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security affirmed on Tuesday that it reviewed the Safe Third Country Agreement with Canada and determined that it could streamline the process without compromising fair access to procedures for assessing an asylum claim.
Under the agreement that came into force in 2004, refugee claimants must seek asylum in the first country they reach between the two.
The procedural modification entails that individuals entering the U.S. from Canada and filing an asylum claim there will now have four hours to consult with lawyers instead of 24 hours.
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This change also means that border officials will only consider the documentary evidence that asylum claimants possess upon arrival, eliminating the previous option for individuals to request time to gather evidence.
Jamie Chai Yun Liew, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, expressed disappointment in the Canadian government’s response.
“To me, this clearly indicates that they prioritize efficient border processing over humanitarian concerns and commitments to international refugee law,” Liew explained in an email.
Liew was part of a legal team that intervened during the Supreme Court of Canada’s challenge of the agreement, which ultimately ruled the pact with the U.S. as constitutional last year.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Joe Biden updated the Safe Third Country Agreement simultaneously to close a loophole allowing individuals to make claims after evading official border crossings.
This led to a significant decrease in individuals crossing into Canada from the U.S. at unofficial border points, but the number of people traveling in the opposite direction has begun to rise.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection data reveals that over 12,000 individuals were arrested along the Canadian border in the first six months of 2024, surpassing the total number of arrests made in all of 2023.
The volume of migrants crossing between Canada and the U.S. is considerably smaller than at the U.S.-Mexico border, but the new regulations at the Canada-U.S. border mirror time-constraint adjustments made at America’s southern border earlier this year.
In June, Biden implemented sweeping changes around the border with Mexico as both parties aim to address migration concerns ahead of the November election.
