Refugee arrivals in Quebec surge after U.S. revokes immigration status

 

 

Refugee arrivals in Quebec surge after U.S. revokes immigration status. The new report comes amid concerns that the Trump administration’s immigration policies are driving up the number of immigrants entering Canada.

Border officials say there has been a steady increase in the number of people seeking asylum in Canada through the main border crossing south of Montreal. Many people whose legal stay in the United States is about to expire are also arriving at the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacol crossing. Data from the Canada Border Services Agency shows that the number of refugee applications through here has been increasing since the beginning of the year. 1,356 applications were received in March and 557 applications were received in April through last Saturday. The surge in asylum applications in Canada comes as the temporary status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the United States is about to expire.

Since the election of US President Donald Trump in November, the number of potential refugees arriving in Canada has increased, says Franz André, a spokesman for a Montreal-based group that helps immigrants. A large number of those crossing the Quebec border into Canada are Haitian immigrants. They have come to Canada because their legal stay in the United States is about to expire, Franz André said.