"Canada Will Welcome You"

"[Some people may find it] shocking [to see migrants put up in  hotels, but it's] certainly better than seeing them in the streets."
"Maybe there is a middle ground between the hotel and the street. But what is the middle ground? Putting them up in community housing that's already sorely lacking?"

"I find that those who say Canada is 'rolling out the red carpet' for migrants are going too far."

"I get the impression that it's extremely lucrative for certain people -- like for the buses and taxis in Plattsburgh that travel to Roxham Road. [I look on it as a form of] human trafficking."

Mayor Estelle Muzzi, St-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec

"Every time there's a bus that arrives, there's somebody going to Roxham."

"Sometimes I pick up one person, sometimes it's five. They sometimes come in by bus for free from New York City because the mayor paid for everything. But once people get here, they got no goddamn money. So sometimes I take them for free."

"I grew up in poverty, I'm sensitive to it. I understand these people's desire to try anything and pay everything in the hope of a better life."

Tom, taxi driver, Plattsburgh, N.Y. Greyhound terminal

A family of five enters Canada from the U.S. at Roxham Road. Photo by Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette

The buses arrive, from New York City where authorities there persuade migrants who have been bused by authorities in Texas and elsewhere on the border with Mexico, to New York City to relieve the strain on their own cities, to agree to travel a little further on NYC's dime, to take refuge in Canada, where they would be welcomed with open arms. They could always cite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's offhand invitation for refugees to consider coming to Canada which would welcome them with open arms.

 

Refugees who crossed the U.S.-Canada border at Lacolle on Feb. 23, were processed and were moved by bus to their next stop. Photo by Dave Sidaway /Montreal Gazette

But that was before the unstoppable influx of migrants, and he was reacting to then-President Trump's crackdown on migrants flooding the U.S.-Mexico border, just to show how sanctimoniously superior  \he was compared to Trump. Now, after years of tens of thousands making their illegal way across the border from the U.S. into Canada, the provincial premiers are becoming beyond annoyed and expressing their opinion of the strain on social welfare resources that they've been forced to deal with.

 

"To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you", invited Mr. Trudeau, and since then 100,000 migrants have crossed into Canada. Quebec no longer absorbs the migrants since it began complaining that too much strain was placed on its social support and healthcare system. Redistribution of asylum claimants from Roxham Road has taken place, to cities in Ontario: Ottawa, Niagara Falls, Toronto, Cornwall, and others. 

Zulema Diaz (R) and Maryangel Diaz, two Latino women who crossed from the U.S. border to Roxham Road in Quebec, order coffee at a hotel, in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada March 7, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio

 

People escaping poverty and crime in Haiti and Central America, violence and persecution in the Middle East, lack of opportunities in Africa, don't realize that there are people living in poverty in Canada with shrinking incomes and a huge rise in the cost of living. Medical/hospitalization services, welfare, assisted housing, are all stretched to their limits. Canada is a land of opportunity for some, but by no means all its indigenous and immigrant population.

Now, a fee of $50 or $70US will pay for a trip from the bus station to the closest, easiest illegal crossing -- Roxham Road -- from New York to Quebec where migrants carry their belongings and illegally walk across the border to Canada preparing to make an asylum claim. They are intercepted by the RCMP explaining that they've passed a legitimate border crossing. There, if they present themselves, they will be turned back reflecting a border agreement with the U.S. that neither will accept a claimant who originated from the other side, considered a 'safe haven'.

 

Asylum seekers, who state they are from Turkey, walk down Roxham Road to cross into Canada from the U.S. in Champlain, New York, U.S., February 28, 2023. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi

 

Once the RCMP officers hear the words ''refugee claim', the migrants are escorted to a central receiving area from which they will be transported to hotels. They will be fed and sheltered at government expense. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spent $136 million on 'temporary accommodation in the last 2-1/2 years for asylum claimants entering through Roxham Road for meals, accommodation, transportation and security and another $551.5 million to provinces and municipalities.

If the government agency determines the migrants are eligible for an asylum claim, they are provided access to 'social assistance, education, health services, emergency housing and legal aid' as they await the IRCC's determination on their case, a process that can take years, reflecting significant backlogs. Backlogs encompassing people going through legal channels in the immigration system who find themselves waiting longer as a result of the illegal migrants' claims.

According to RCMP agents, a growing number of migrants have been arriving by way of Florida where they fly into the U.S., pay to take a minibus for the long drive north to Roxham Road. The bus route to Plattsburgh is a five-hour drive from New York City, It has become a booming route since New York City began giving out free bus tickets to migrants who agree to relocate elsewhere, including those wanting to cross into Canada.