Onward, Migrant Horde!

"We found that people had other destinations, but they were being compelled only to come to New York City, and we are assisting in interviewing those who seek to go somewhere else."

"Some want to go to Canada, some want to go to warmer states, and we are there for them as they continue to move on with their pursuit of this dream."

New York City Mayor Eric Adams

 

"A lot of the Americans used drugs there. I feel like Canada will be safer. It is a much quieter country than America."

"It is very difficult to get papers in America. I need to work, so I am going to Canada."

Migrant Manuel Rodon, 26, Venezuelan

 

"The military gave me and my family free bus tickets"

" I am going to Canada for a better quality of life for my family."

Migrant Raymond Pena, Venezuelan

 

"Word has spread among the migrant community [that Canada - where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau touted the country's] proud and longstanding tradition of welcoming people seeking safety [is the place to go]."

“Mayor Eric Adams’s administration pays various companies that run programs for migrants that include ‘re-ticketing’ so they can travel to other cities, a City Hall source said."

New York Post

Recent immigrants to the United States talk to city officials in front of the Watson Hotel in New York, Monday, Jan. 30, 2023. The immigrants, mostly from Venezuela and other Latin American countries, had been living in the hotel until recently, when they were told to leave the temporary shelter. Photo by Seth Wenig /AP

 U.S. States adjacent the border with Mexico developed a strategy whereby they bus illegal migrants that enter their states, deep into the heart of the United States, to Democratic states that have been sanctimoniously condemnatory of their Republican brother-states unwilling to absorb the ongoing presence of increasing numbers of seemingly unstoppable illegal entrants to the United States. To solve their own problems partially and to stamp 'pay-back', bus loads of migrants have been arriving in New York City which now claims it has no space left to house and care for the migrants.

And while New York City is understandably enraged over the perfidy of Texas sending illegal migrants onward to become their problem, the city has discovered a nifty new way of alleviating their own problem. By doing precisely what Texas has been engaged in. Only they're not sending the migrants back to Texas, they're floating the benefits of entering Canada to claim asylum there where they can find a new prosperous and secure life in a country built on immigration.

Immigration, that is, not illegal entry of unauthorized migrants. The way to enter any country as a desired destination is and always has been legally. Applying for visas, applying to become an immigrant. Canada invests millions in accepting immigrants from all over the world. It has an economy dependent on a labour force, but an aging population, one that is not replacing itself by natural means, with a steadily falling birthrate. Immigration to Canada has been averaging a third of a million people annually. 

Asylum seekers talk to a police officer as they cross into Canada from the U.S. border near a checkpoint on Roxham Road near Hemmingford, Quebec, April 24, 2022. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi

 

 Canada has its own problems in absorption of such huge numbers. Settling them in is extremely costly on the social welfare system, the universal medicare system, and the fact that there is insufficient public housing for people as things stand now, and housing is scarce and prohibitively expensive. The health care system has taken a beating since the pandemic and is having problems catching up to the level of service considered minimal. Adding tens of thousands of unwanted people entering illegally to declare the need for haven comes at a rather awkward time, to say the least.

But those buses from New York taking passengers representing illegal migrants to the border with Canada keep coming. And only now is it being revealed that delivering passengers by cab companies who take over as the buses debus the passengers, to enable them to access illegal entry border areas, bypassing official entry points continues. To the sum of an average of 39,000 annual illegal entries to Quebec alone, in the past several years.

Taxi drivers wait for migrants at the Plattsburgh terminus with signs indicating they will drive to Roxham Road. (Romain Schué/Radio-Canada)

Reports have emerged that migrants resort to tearing up their American immigration documents as they travel from Plattsburgh, New York, to the Canadian border. Christine Frechette, Quebec's immigration minister, "surprised" to discover the plan hatched by New York City, turns to the federal government to reach a solution to the problem at Roxham Road, used as an unofficial border crossing south of Montreal, enabling tens of thousands to cross into Canada to claim asylum. These asylum-seekers are not turned away; by Canadian law they complete documents that will be assessed and either accepted or rejected. In the meanwhile, they are able to live in Canada, assisted by social services.

In cities like Toronto, temporary housing for the homeless is being compromised as are other levels of social services by illegal migrants requiring similar assistance. If New York City finds itself overwhelmed by the burden of caring for tens of thousands of migrants whose human needs cannot be ignored, it must realize that cities like Montreal and Toronto face the same dilemma; disingenuously Mayor Adams claims to be just 'helping' the migrants get on in life . The idea being, to pass on the problems rather than face them and strategize a solution.

 

Luggage from migrants fills a pathway at an illegal crossing point from Champlain, N.Y., to Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Que.. Quebec's immigration minister says she's surprised by reports that the City of New York is helping to provide free bus tickets to migrants heading north to claim asylum in Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP Photo/Charles Krupa