US, Canada Strike Deal On Illegal Migration

25/03/2023

102 1 minute read

President Joe Biden laid out a vision of world-leading United States-Canadian economic cooperation in a speech to Canada’s parliament Friday, and announced that the giant neighbours had reached a deal on curbing illegal migration.

“Americans and Canadians are two peoples, two countries, in my view sharing one heart,” Biden said, getting cheers when he vowed Canada will “always be able to count on the United States.”

Biden signalled a resolution to one irritant in the close relationship, with a deal on managing the growing issue of undocumented migration on their lengthy border.

“The United States and Canada will work together to discourage unlawful border crossings,” he said. The arrangement will see undocumented asylum seekers crossing from the United States into Canada turned back, while Canada will simultaneously expand the pathway for legal entries.

The plan, similar to a crackdown on the much more heavily used US-Mexican border, has been criticised by migrants’ rights activists. However, Biden and Trudeau are both under political pressure to relieve their badly strained immigration systems and Biden said that regardless, “welcoming refugees and asylum seekers is a part of who Canadians and Americans are.”

The deal will have “devastating impacts on refugee claimants who are already at extreme risk,” Amnesty International’s Julia Sande said. “It will push people to more dangerous crossings in either remote areas or relying on smugglers.”

Biden laid out a vision of the neighbours being ever more closely bound with the joint goal of building high-tech economies and reinforcing supply chains for things like semiconductors and critical minerals used in electric vehicle manufacturing, saying: “We’re going to write the future together.”

Trudeau earlier greeted Biden at the parliament building, saying Canada has “no greater friend and ally than the United States”.

25/03/2023

102 1 minute read