TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada will not tighten its border to deter migrants crossing illegally from the United States in the wake of a U.S. immigration crackdown because the numbers are not big enough to cause alarm, a government minister said on Saturday.

An RCMP officer waits as a group that claimed to be from Syria arrives at the U.S.-Canada border in Hemmingford, Quebec. REUTERS/Dario Ayala

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the issue had not risen to a scale that required hindering the flow of goods and people moving across the world’s longest undefended border.

Hundreds of people, mainly from Africa and the Middle East, have defied winter conditions and walked across the border, seeking asylum. They are fleeing President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, migrants and refugee agencies say.

It is not common to have so many asylum seekers in the United States looking for refuge in Canada over such a short period. The influx poses a political risk for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who faces pressure from the left, which wants more let in, and from the right, which fears an increased security risk.

“We are concerned and we will deal properly with the extra hundreds (crossing illegally),” Goodale told reporters at a televised news conference in Emerson, Manitoba. “But the full border deals with 400,000 people moving in both directions every day. It also handles C$2.5 billion in trade every day.

“It is critically important for us to make sure that it is strong and secure. At the same time, it needs to be efficient and expeditious.”

Emerson, on the North Dakota border, has been overwhelmed by the migration and appealed for more government help to handle the influx.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Manitoba say 183 people have walked across that border in sub-zero temperatures since Jan. 1. Goodale said the pace has picked up in recent weeks.

On Jan. 25, a White House executive order temporarily banned visitors from seven mainly Muslim countries and also expanded immigration enforcement action domestically.

“The current accelerated rate started in the first week of

February and we’ve been following this very very closely,” Goodale said.

Canadian and U.S. officials are working on a plan to tackle asylum seekers crossing into Canada illegally, with American officials keen to discover how they entered the United States in the first place. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly is to visit Canada this month for talks on the border.

Goodale said it was important for both countries to have the same data and information about the migrants “to fully appreciate where the flow began and all of the factors – and it’s not just one factor – that are contributing to the migration.”</s>OTTAWA Canada will not tighten its border to deter migrants crossing illegally from the US in the wake of a US immigration crackdown because the numbers are not big enough to cause alarm.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the issue had not risen to a scale that required hindering the flow of goods and people moving across the world's longest undefended border.

Hundreds of people, mainly from Africa and the Middle East, have defied winter conditions and walked across the border, seeking asylum.</s>Canada will not tighten its border to deter migrants crossing illegally from the United States in the wake of a U.S. immigration crackdown because the numbers are not big enough to cause alarm, a government minister said on Saturday.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the issue had not risen to a scale that required hindering the flow of goods and people moving across the world's longest undefended border.

Hundreds of people, mainly from Africa and the Middle East, have defied winter conditions and walked across the border, seeking asylum. They are fleeing President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, migrants and refugee agencies say.

It is not common to have so many asylum seekers in the United States looking for refuge in Canada over such a short period. The influx poses a political risk for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who faces pressure from the left, which wants more let in, and from the right, which fears an increased security risk.

"We are concerned and we will deal properly with the extra hundreds (crossing illegally)," Goodale told reporters at a televised news conference in Emerson, Manitoba. "But the full border deals with 400,000 people moving in both directions every day. It also handles C$2.5 billion in trade every day.</s>Canada will not tighten security at its border to deter people crossing illegally from the U.S. because the numbers are not big enough to raise concerns, an official said Saturday.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the issue has not increased to a point where officials will be required to hamper the flow of goods and people moving across the world’s longest undefended border, Reuters reported.

Many people leaving the U.S. for Canada are doing so because of the political rhetoric of the Trump administration, immigration advocates say.

Many cross illegally, braving snow and frigid cold in a dash for asylum. They avoid border checkpoints and the risk of being sent back to the U.S. due to a pact dubbed the "Safe Third Country Agreement." It requires the majority of migrants to apply for refugee protection in the first country of arrival.

"We are concerned and we will deal properly with the extra hundreds," Goodale said at a news conference in Emerson, which is located near the North Dakota border. "But the full border deals with 400,000 people moving in both directions every day. It also handles (more than $1 trillion) in trade every day.”

Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Manitoba said at least 183 people walked across the border in frigid temperatures since Jan. 1. Goodale said the pace has picked up and it’s largely because of Trump’s executive order which temporarily banned visitors from predominantly-Muslim nations and expanded immigration enforcement across the U.S.

"The current accelerated rate started in the first week of February and we’ve been following this very, very closely,” Goodale said.

Canadian and U.S. officials are working on a way to handle the influx of asylum-seekers crossing into Canada illegally, according to Reuters. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly is expected to visit Canada later this month for border security talks.

According to the Canada Border Services Agency, more than 1,400 people have made claims at land border ports of entry in the region since November. That's more than all of 2015.

The inundation is keeping the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and their partners busy, forcing them to add manpower along the border. With warmer temperatures approaching in the coming months, resources may be further stretched.

Click for more from Reuters.</s>OTTAWA – The federal public safety minister is expected this weekend to visit the Manitoba town where dozens of people have been crossing illegally into Canada in recent weeks.

Ralph Goodale is making the trip Saturday to observe what’s happening on the ground in Emerson, Man.

Goodale is expected to meet and thank local officials who played a major role assisting the 90 people who have arrived in the small community since the start of the year, as well has hundreds before that.

READ MORE: Spring weather not guaranteed to bring more U.S. asylum seekers illegally into Canada, official says

On Thursday, border security officials said some 435 people had crossed illegally into Canada at several different points since Jan. 1, most of them with plans to ask for asylum.

Amid calls for stepped-up enforcement along the border, Goodale has said existing resources were being shifted around as required.

Still, communities affected by the influx have also been asking for more support to help cope with the influx of newcomers; earlier this week United Way Winnipeg launched a website to raise funds.</s>An RCMP officer speaks with women from Sudan after they illegally crossed the Canada-US border near Hemmingford, Quebec (AFP Photo/Geoff Robins)

Ottawa (AFP) - As greater numbers of refugees flow from the United States into Canada by land, US-pledged cooperation has become essential, Canada's public safety minister said Saturday.

With US President Donald Trump beginning to tighten enforcement of immigration rules, and more than 11 million undocumented migrants living in the United States, crossings into Canada have been increasing since the beginning of the year.

"We need to have a very good cooperative, seamless arrangement with the US to fully appreciate where the flow began, and all of the factors that are contributing to the migration," said Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale during a visit to Emerson, Manitoba.

The recent wave of migrants to Canada originated mostly from East Africa and war-torn nations such as Syria.

"We need to make sure that we all have the same data and information about the makeup of this migration. It is clearly affecting Canada as the migrants come across the border," Goodale said.

"The Americans have indicated that they are equally interested in fully getting the facts and understanding the genesis of this and we will work collaboratively and seamlessly with them," he added.

But he did not say what that cooperation would look like, or when it would happen.

Federal police and immigration officials said some refugees appeared to have intended from the start to come to Canada after flying to the United States on a visitor visa.

Others decided to come only after they were denied asylum south of the border, or because they feared deportation amid the current US crackdown.

From January 1 to February 21, a total of about 4,000 people filed refugee claims in Canada, up from 2,500 during the same period last year.

The figure includes border jumpers and those arriving from the United States at border checkpoints.

Local officials say at least 180 asylum-seekers have crossed the border near Emerson since January.</s>It was probably unavoidable that when federal bureaucrats met with reporters on Thursday to discuss how the government is handling the growing number of people entering Canada illegally from the U.S. it would boil down to numbers.

In just the first two months of 2017, nearly twice as many people have made refugee claims in Canada compared to all of 2016. Over that same brief period, 435 people have crossed illegally into Canada and were arrested by the RCMP.

And then there was this number: officials said no one has been charged, at least not yet, for doing so.

For Canadians who've seen the images of entire families arriving at the border, toting their luggage and little else, the numbers shouldn't be much of a surprise in the aftermath of U.S. President Donald Trump's orders directing the immediate arrest and deportation of illegal immigrants back on Jan. 25, and the temporary ban on travellers from seven mostly Muslim countries signed two days later.

The fear of being forcibly removed, in many cases to a country the asylum seeker fled to avoid persecution or death, has prompted some to head north in the depths of winter.

Many would have already known of Canada's generous refugee policy, the income supports and basic health benefits they would receive as refugee claimants. Some might even have seen the tweet by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after the announcement of Trump's travel ban, since suspended by the courts, welcoming all those fleeing persecution, terror and war.

And most would have been aware that they had to cross illegally into Canada, at unofficial and largely unpoliced points along the world's longest undefended border, or risk being returned to the U.S. under a deal called the Safe Third Country Agreement. It requires asylum seekers entering at land border crossings to apply for refugee status in the country where they first arrived.

Such agreements are intended to prevent "asylum shopping," where people move from country to country until they find one they like, and situations where people ruled inadmissible in one country move to another and another until their refugee claim is accepted.

Critics of the agreement say it should be suspended to reduce the risks faced by those trying to get into Canada, risks that include frostbite and being abused by smugglers.
• 'We saw what happened in the airports': Asylum seekers surge into Manitoba

Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, says before the Safe Third Country Agreement became law in 2004, Canada dealt with asylum seekers without these issues and without overwhelming the RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency or other government departments.

"It never caused the fall of Canada. There's no reason to think we couldn't go back to what we had in the past and we would avoid the situation that we've been seeing with people crossing irregularly."

Jenny Kwan, the NDP's critic for immigration and refugees, argues the U.S. is no longer a safe alternative to Canada.

"The executive orders from President Trump, the massive crackdown on undocumented immigrants … all make it very clear that the United States under Trump no longer meets that criteria," she said in the Commons earlier this month.

Others, including most if not all of the Conservative leadership candidates, want the agreement enforced; up to having officers on the border ordering asylum seekers to turn back.

"We have a fair and generous process for refugees around the world," leadership candidate Erin O'Toole says in an interview with CBC Radio's The House.

"And it's unfair to them to allow people to use politics to jump ahead of the queue and to overwhelm rural parts of our border."

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale concedes the "queue-jumping" is a problem. But he insists the processes Canada has in place ensure there's no threat to Canadian security.

Government officials involved in Thursday's technical briefing told reporters that biometric data is being gathered from everyone who enters the country illegally to determine if any are inadmissible to Canada on security grounds.

Still, a 2013 report by the auditor general on illegal entry into Canada found gaps in the system, and says failing to prevent illegal entry not only compromises security but costs taxpayers an estimated $26,000 for each rejected refugee claimant.

So how much of a problem is it that so many people are now trying to get into Canada illegally? Should Canada suspend the Safe Third Country Agreement until the situation created by Trump's executive orders is clearer?

John Manley, the former Liberal cabinet minister who negotiated the deal with the U.S. back in the early 2000s, says the answer to the second question is no.

"If you suspend it, then they can cross at regular border crossings," Manley told CBC News Network's Power & Politics this week. "Forget 30 here, 20 there that are going through Minnesota into Manitoba — now you're starting to deal with thousands of people."

Dench argues suspending the agreement would lead to a more orderly flow of people wanting to claim refugee status.

"It's important to realize that people coming through the U.S., although there's a lot of focus on those people who are concerned about Trump, in fact quite a large number of people who are coming were destined for Canada anyway."

Immigration lawyer Lorne Waldman believes Canada needs to educate potential asylum seekers south of the border that they won't necessarily be any better off in Canada.

"If you've lived in the Unites States, for example, for seven or eight years illegally and you come to Canada to make a refugee claim you're going to have a hard time convincing a judge in Canada that you have a fear of returning, not to the United States, but to your country of nationality that you haven't lived in for nine or 10 years."

Ralph Goodale says he will be meeting with U.S. officials to discuss what can be done to stem the flow.

For now, there's every reason to expect more and more people will cross into Canada illegally to claim refugee status. And for Canadian authorities who must sort through the claims, and identify any potential risks, that adds up to a lot more than just numbers.
• UN lawyer to visit Manitoba to observe influx of asylum seekers</s>EMERSON, Man. -- Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale is set to arrive in Emerson, Man., today to observe what's happening on the ground in the border town where dozens of people have crossed illegally into Canada in recent weeks.

Goodale is expected to meet and thank local officials who played a major role assisting the people who have arrived in the small community since the start of the year.

Exactly how many people have crossed illegally into Canada in recent weeks is difficult to pin down.

Manitoba RCMP say 143 people had been intercepted as of Feb. 27, but expect to release new figures today.

Most of those who've crossed the border illegally have been declared eligible to make claims for asylum, so they will not face charges for the illegal crossings until those claims have been decided, a process that could take months.

Fellow Liberal cabinet minister Jim Carr, the minister responsible for Manitoba, is expected to accompany Goodale in Emerson.</s>The border officer's union in Canada believes that the country needs to upgrade presence along the United States border after 382 people reportedly made asylum claims at a single entry point in January.

Jean-Pierre Fortin, president of the Customs and Immigration Union, said those on the ground have said there are more illegal crossings taking place than officials are aware of.

One port in Quebec has experienced a particularly large number of asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants - the Saint Bernard Lecolle in the small town of Emerson, Manitoba, just outside of Montreal.

Fortin said that last week alone, at least 200 immigrants entered the country illegally near the Lecolle port. He said that the influx began in November 2016 - the month Donald Trump was elected president.

Officials say that people are crossing the border illegally about eight kilometers down the road with their belongings in tow, according to CTV News.

The CIU are suggesting a 300-person team to man the areas in between official entry points - and that the border right now is 'like swiss cheese'.

He continued: 'Since last November up to now, there's a clear trend. It's climbing. It's going up.'

Fortin believes that in order to provide the security he would find ideal, more than 1,000 jobs would need to be reinstated that were previously cut.

The government is willing to put more resources in place to deal with the influx of asylum-seekers from the United States, federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Saturday.

Goodale visited Emerson, Manitoba, a small border town that has seen some 200 illicit crossings so far this year.

'We all need to work together. We have to have good communication with one another. This is a set of issues that span national, provincial and local responsibilities,' Goodale told reporters at a conference Saturday.

Goodale announced US$22,000 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 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 U.S.

Canada, however, adheres to the UN Convention on Refugees, obligating them to hear out asylum claims for people who are already within the territories of the country, which could be prompting the increased illegal entries.

Unaccompanied minors and those with close relatives in Canada are permitted to make asylum claims from the United States at the border entry.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been under increasing pressure to deal with asylum seekers illegally crossing into Canada from the US.

Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel has called on the government to ensure migrants who sneak across the border are charged with crossing illegally, but Goodale said they 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 is examining requests for more aid from refugee support agencies, but did not provide specifics.

Trudeau, who stresses that Canada welcomes refugees, has so far avoided political fallout with Trump.

Allies and opponents alike say they want a strategy to cope with the dozens of people - mainly from Burundi, Eritrea, Syria, Ghana and Sudan - walking across the border every day.

The premier of the western province of Manitoba, where many of the refugees end up had previously asked Ottawa for more resources to deal with the new arrivals, some of whom have lost fingers to frostbite in the dangerous crossing.

While Brian Pallister said his province will welcome those in need with 'open arms and open hearts,' his call for a national strategy to deal with the arrivals adds to opposition criticism that Trudeau has put national security at risk by embracing asylum seekers.

As of February 13, some 3,800 people had made an asylum claim in 2017, up from the same period last year and on track to approach the 2008 peak of 36,867, said Scott Bardsley, spokesman for Public Safety Minister.

The White House said Trump emphasized the importance of working closely with Canada on cross-border issues, 'including implementation of his administration's actions to protect America from terrorist attacks by foreign nationals and others'.

Officials say Trump will soon issue a new executive order to replace the administration's directive suspending travel to the US by citizens of seven mostly Muslim countries.

Polls show Canadians are split over whether Canada should be accepting more or fewer refugees. But even Liberal legislators are starting to hear from constituents concerned about the arrivals.

'One or two people have raised the issue with me ... and I expect I'll have a few more' conversations with constituents about the arrivals, said Kevin Lamoureux, member of parliament for Winnipeg North, where many asylum seekers settle awaiting their refugee hearing.

Other dramatic photos captured the moment eight asylum seekers, including four children, barely made it across the Canadian border as a US border patrol officer tried to stop them.

The photos, which included smiling Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) greeting men, women, teens and children went viral last week.

A US Customs and Border Patrol officer seized their passports and questioned a man in the front passenger seat of a taxi that had pulled up to the border in Champlain, New York.

As the man was being questioned, four adults and four young children fled the cab and ran to RCMP on the other side.

One by one they scrambled across the snowy gully separating the two countries.

Family members dragged luggage and pushed their toddler in a stroller through the snow before Canadian officers detained them, per standard procedure for refugee claimants.

RCMP officers watching from the other side helped them up, lifting the younger children and asking a woman, who leaned on her fellow passenger as she walked, if she needed medical care.

The children looked back from where they had come as the US officer held the first man, saying his papers needed to be verified.

The man turned to a pile of belongings and heaved pieces of luggage two at a time into the gully - enormous wheeled suitcases, plastic shopping bags, a black backpack.

'Nobody cares about us,' he said. He said they were all from Sudan and had been living and working in Delaware for two years.

A photo showed that at least one of their passports was Sudanese. Some media reports list the family as being from Somalia.

The man then appeared to grab their passports from the US officer before making a run for the border.

The officer yelled and gave chase but stopped at the border marker. Canadian police took hold of the man's arm as he crossed.

The border patrol officer told his counterpart that the man was in the US illegally and that he would have detained him.

Officers on both sides momentarily eyed the luggage strewn in the snow before the US officer took it, and a walker left on the road, to the border line.

Canadian police carried the articles to their vehicles, and the people piled in to be driven to a nearby border office to be interviewed by police and to make a refugee claim.

'The RCMP aren't there to treat them like bandits. They're here to apply the law', retired Sûreté du Québec police officer and Hemmingford resident François Doré told CBCNews.

The small town of Hemmingford has seen a surge of asylum seekers since Trump took office and instated a ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Sudan and Somalia.

Though key parts of the ban have been blocked by a federal judge, there is still confusion.

'Sometimes when you're left with no options and you're looking for a better life for yourself, people do take risks', Mohamud Noor, executive director of the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota told Global News.

'It will increase rather than decrease … This is not going to reduce'.

Trudeau has admitted that he is 'very concerned' with the amount of asylum seekers crossing into rural areas.

But Trudeau did not say whether he would seek to suspend Canada's agreement with the US and allow these people to apply for refugee status at official borders.

The majority of these crossings have been happening on the New York-Quebec border, which authorities attribute to its closeness to the major East Coast cities.</s>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, 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.

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 migrants 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.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale says Canada will not tighten its border because more migrants, reacting to the United States immigration crackdown, are illegally crossing into Canada from the U.S. Goodale added the issue had not risen to a scale that required hindering the flow of goods and people moving across the world's longest undefended border.