Sep 2, 2023 04:12 PM
(This post was last modified: Sep 2, 2023 09:16 PM by C C.)
Many migrants and asylum seekers actually want to enter Canada because they feel it is safer there (see second section further down). Now they're stuck in northern states because Biden and Trudeau revised the Safe Third Country Agreement to close loophole passageways along the Canadian-US border. If Canada is really more accepting of unprocessed seekers, as some of its spokespeople claim, then one might infer that Biden privately strong-armed Trudeau to do it. (Especially given that the latter is normally deemed such a saint and icon of compassion. 
)
Note that this isn't a GOP or Trump island in the midst of Chicago or the overall Blue State of Illinois: "The Kenwood community area has supported the Democratic Party in the past two presidential elections by overwhelming margins."
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‘I am absolutely livid’: Kenwood residents decry plan to turn hotel into migrant shelter
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/8/30/2...nt-shelter
EXCERPT: Kenwood resident Doris Lewis, saying she lives across the street from the hotel, blasted Yancy and other city officials at the meeting for their plans.
“I am absolutely livid, livid. You all are so hypocritical. I live right across the street from that hotel. Back when they were there in the spring ... they would be on our lawn, on our benches. I’m walking around the building, what do I walk upon? Three men urinating on the building,” Lewis said. “I don’t want them there. Take them someplace else or send them back to Venezuela, I don’t care where they go.
“This is wrong ... 73 percent of the people homeless in this city are Black people. What have you done for them?” Lewis asked, drawing claps and cheers from some in the crowd. “What are you doing for the thousands of Black children who are not in school?”
After hearing the shouting and similar rhetoric from some in the crowd, Vasquez, chair of the City Council’s Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said residents were playing into the hands of those seeking to divide Black and Brown communities by sending the buses to the city.... RELATED TOPIC (scivillage): Mayor Eric Adams, NYC - "We need to control the border. We need help."
VIDEO OF THE ABOVE: https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/16...mp4?tag=14
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Why the closing of the US-Canada border plunges migrants into despair
https://youtu.be/MHOQxiZ9Eoo
(VIDEO EXCERPTS) In 2022 40,000 immigrants entered Canada from the U.S., an official border crossings all-time record. Now official crossing points between Canada and the US have been strictly regulated by a treaty known as the Safe Third Country agreement.
Under this agreement immigrants seeking refugee status must first make their claim in the first safe country they arrive at, which would be the U.S. Unofficial crossing points like Ruxham Road used to represent the loophole in the regulation. The Canadians do not want to be the Americans. I mean you know there are a lot of similarities between Canadians and Americans, but on immigration they have kept this out of politics for the most part. That is until March of this year when U.S president visited Canada at a press conference.
Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the expansion of the Safe Third Country agreement to include unofficial crossings as well.
Safe Third Country agreement was issued via executive order. However, it does not have the support of everyone. In Ottawa some members of the Canadian Parliament were caught by surprise after the executive decision of closing border crossings.
Jennifer Kwan - New Democratic Party (NDP): "I was very dismayed that the liberal government the prime minister decided to apply the safer country agreement to the entire border between Canada and the United States on land. By doing that effectively they shut down the entire border for asylum seekers, and is really no different than what the Trump administration tried to do by erecting a wall. In this instance what the Canadian government has done is to erect an invisible wall to block out asylum seekers."
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How Biden and Trudeau’s border deal affects asylum-seekers entering Canada
https://youtu.be/d6Pn_dxEJHM
(VIDEO EXCERPTS) AMNA NAWAZ: What about the part of the deal on which Canada it says they will open up new legal pathways additional legal pathways for some 15,000 people to arrive from we know some of those South and Central American countries where we have been seeing a large amount of migration. What do you make of that?
ABDULLA DAOUD: It's a very small step, like I said, 15,000 compared to the 40,000 that we just had this -- in this past year. And it's also just from the Western Hemisphere. So, if we're looking at the majority of individuals that come in, there are a lot of individuals who come from Afghanistan, who come in from Libya, from Yemen, from West Africa. So, it is a diverse mix of individuals who are seeking safety.
[...] Individuals don't feel that they have that same safety in the United States. So, they believe that their best chance to actually seek safety and have their stories heard and provide the actual evidence that they can is in Canada. This is why they're choosing Canada.
AMNA NAWAZ: And what about your immigration system? I mean, Canada's immigration system we have seen here in the United States the system has been really taxed, pushed to its limits, when we have seen the same increase of people arriving at the U.S. Southern border. And, like many nations, Canada is now seeing a dramatic rise in the number of people seeking asylum there. How has your system been able to handle it?
ABDULLA DAOUD: Just like any system, of course, it's a little bit of a strain, but it's nothing that we cannot handle.
So, if you just look at this past year, we accepted over 150,000 Ukrainians as refugees into the country. And our infrastructure was able to accommodate that. So, from the about 90,000 to whether irregular or regular, we were able to accommodate that as well, obviously, with some more investment and some more help.
But, in general, it's not a number that is unheard of. It is an increase, but we can accommodate it, and we can create obstacles, and we can actually create infrastructures and systems to accommodate more. So, this kind of response, I think, is a bit fearful, because just as a lot of historical examples have shown us, when we are restricting migration patterns, and we don't create enough of a breathing room for regularized migration patterns, people resort to different means.
And bad actors and bad-faith actors might come into play, where you can see human smuggling or human trafficking come into play here as well.
) Note that this isn't a GOP or Trump island in the midst of Chicago or the overall Blue State of Illinois: "The Kenwood community area has supported the Democratic Party in the past two presidential elections by overwhelming margins."
- - - - - - - - - - -
‘I am absolutely livid’: Kenwood residents decry plan to turn hotel into migrant shelter
https://chicago.suntimes.com/2023/8/30/2...nt-shelter
EXCERPT: Kenwood resident Doris Lewis, saying she lives across the street from the hotel, blasted Yancy and other city officials at the meeting for their plans.
“I am absolutely livid, livid. You all are so hypocritical. I live right across the street from that hotel. Back when they were there in the spring ... they would be on our lawn, on our benches. I’m walking around the building, what do I walk upon? Three men urinating on the building,” Lewis said. “I don’t want them there. Take them someplace else or send them back to Venezuela, I don’t care where they go.
“This is wrong ... 73 percent of the people homeless in this city are Black people. What have you done for them?” Lewis asked, drawing claps and cheers from some in the crowd. “What are you doing for the thousands of Black children who are not in school?”
After hearing the shouting and similar rhetoric from some in the crowd, Vasquez, chair of the City Council’s Committee on Immigrant and Refugee Rights, said residents were playing into the hands of those seeking to divide Black and Brown communities by sending the buses to the city.... RELATED TOPIC (scivillage): Mayor Eric Adams, NYC - "We need to control the border. We need help."
VIDEO OF THE ABOVE: https://video.twimg.com/amplify_video/16...mp4?tag=14
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why the closing of the US-Canada border plunges migrants into despair
https://youtu.be/MHOQxiZ9Eoo
(VIDEO EXCERPTS) In 2022 40,000 immigrants entered Canada from the U.S., an official border crossings all-time record. Now official crossing points between Canada and the US have been strictly regulated by a treaty known as the Safe Third Country agreement.
Under this agreement immigrants seeking refugee status must first make their claim in the first safe country they arrive at, which would be the U.S. Unofficial crossing points like Ruxham Road used to represent the loophole in the regulation. The Canadians do not want to be the Americans. I mean you know there are a lot of similarities between Canadians and Americans, but on immigration they have kept this out of politics for the most part. That is until March of this year when U.S president visited Canada at a press conference.
Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the expansion of the Safe Third Country agreement to include unofficial crossings as well.
Safe Third Country agreement was issued via executive order. However, it does not have the support of everyone. In Ottawa some members of the Canadian Parliament were caught by surprise after the executive decision of closing border crossings.
Jennifer Kwan - New Democratic Party (NDP): "I was very dismayed that the liberal government the prime minister decided to apply the safer country agreement to the entire border between Canada and the United States on land. By doing that effectively they shut down the entire border for asylum seekers, and is really no different than what the Trump administration tried to do by erecting a wall. In this instance what the Canadian government has done is to erect an invisible wall to block out asylum seekers."
- - - - - - - - - - - -
How Biden and Trudeau’s border deal affects asylum-seekers entering Canada
https://youtu.be/d6Pn_dxEJHM
(VIDEO EXCERPTS) AMNA NAWAZ: What about the part of the deal on which Canada it says they will open up new legal pathways additional legal pathways for some 15,000 people to arrive from we know some of those South and Central American countries where we have been seeing a large amount of migration. What do you make of that?
ABDULLA DAOUD: It's a very small step, like I said, 15,000 compared to the 40,000 that we just had this -- in this past year. And it's also just from the Western Hemisphere. So, if we're looking at the majority of individuals that come in, there are a lot of individuals who come from Afghanistan, who come in from Libya, from Yemen, from West Africa. So, it is a diverse mix of individuals who are seeking safety.
[...] Individuals don't feel that they have that same safety in the United States. So, they believe that their best chance to actually seek safety and have their stories heard and provide the actual evidence that they can is in Canada. This is why they're choosing Canada.
AMNA NAWAZ: And what about your immigration system? I mean, Canada's immigration system we have seen here in the United States the system has been really taxed, pushed to its limits, when we have seen the same increase of people arriving at the U.S. Southern border. And, like many nations, Canada is now seeing a dramatic rise in the number of people seeking asylum there. How has your system been able to handle it?
ABDULLA DAOUD: Just like any system, of course, it's a little bit of a strain, but it's nothing that we cannot handle.
So, if you just look at this past year, we accepted over 150,000 Ukrainians as refugees into the country. And our infrastructure was able to accommodate that. So, from the about 90,000 to whether irregular or regular, we were able to accommodate that as well, obviously, with some more investment and some more help.
But, in general, it's not a number that is unheard of. It is an increase, but we can accommodate it, and we can create obstacles, and we can actually create infrastructures and systems to accommodate more. So, this kind of response, I think, is a bit fearful, because just as a lot of historical examples have shown us, when we are restricting migration patterns, and we don't create enough of a breathing room for regularized migration patterns, people resort to different means.
And bad actors and bad-faith actors might come into play, where you can see human smuggling or human trafficking come into play here as well.