Population Migration Shifts

"I have been getting calls every day from people in the United States who are terrified they will be deported."

"We have spoken to people who have been hiding out in church basements for weeks in the U.S. because they're worried ICE [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents] will come to arrest them."

"Haitians don't trust Trump. So they're still coming to Canada because that's the one place where they might feel safe." 

"Canada is actually deporting people by proxy. Carney is making the rules tougher -- he's using immigration as a bargaining tool because he knows Donald Trump is very sensitive about everything that's immigration." 

Frantz Andre, coordinator, Comite d'Action des Personnes sans Statut

Frantz André is a spokesperson for the Action Committee for People Without Status. (CBC)

 

Prior to his November election, for months Donald Trump had spoken of his intention to deport over 11 million undocumented migrants should he win the presidency. The message he sent to Haitian immigrants among others with his anti-migrant rhetoric was to prepare to face the fact that their days would be numbered in the United States. Then, in late June when the Trump administration moved to begin deporting over 500,000 Haitians living in the U.S. by ending their temporary legal status, their fears were realized. 

 

That has led to officials at the St-Bernard-d-Lacolle border crossing between Quebec and New York receiving over a 400 percent increase of asylum claims from the same period the year before, according to the Canadian Border Services Agency. Claims rose in number 128 percent in June and since the start of the year, an overall rise of 82 percent. Of those claimants, most were Haitians.

 

According to Frantz Andre, a coordinator with the Comite d'Action des Personnes sans Statut, who has been actively involved with assisting Haitians in their bid to settle in Canada for over a decade, the rise in the number of Haitians living in the United States turned to applying for asylum in Canada began before the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency. 

 

In April 2,733 people applied for asylum in Canada at the St-Bernard-de-Lacolle crossing south of Montreal. A total of 19,730 asylum applications were processed in Canada from people arriving at all ports of entry between January and July 2025. By the same time last year, the Canada Border Services Agency had processed 39,085 asylum applications. Of that total, 2,169 were returned to the United States, judged ineligible to enter Canada, most having made their asylum claims at official ports of entry. 

 

There has been a significant change in the number of asylum claims since U.S. President Donald Trump took office. CBC

 

The nationality most represented among asylum claims at land border crossings in Canada are Haitians, hoping to settle in Montreal, a French-speaking province with an already-established large Haitian community. The second-largest proportion of those seeking asylum is Venezuelans, while Americans themselves comprise the third largest proportion of people seeking asylum at land-border crossings. Under former U.S. president Joe Biden, temporary legal status was granted to a half-million Haitians, most having lived in the U.S. since 2010, when an earthquake and tsunami devastated Haiti. 

 

That temporary legal status was extended under the previous American administration until February 2026, in recognition of the political instability, gang violence and allied factors roiling a now-dystopian Haiti. Those Haitians refused entry to Canada are customarily placed into the keeping of U.S. authorities who have the option of either detaining them, or placing them in prison pending deportation back to Haiti. Only Haitians who have close family in Canada can claim asylum here if they're arriving from the U.S.

 

Under the long-standing Safe Third Country Agreement, in requiring refugee protection in Canada or the U.S. asylum claimants must seek refugee protection in the first country they reach. Those who go on to either of the two as a second attempt will be turned back. "Many Haitians living in the United States are not aware of these regulations", explained the former head of the Maison d'Haiti organization in Montreal, that serves the Haitian community. "And they are trying to come in just as the Canadian government is making it more difficult for people to seek asylum here."

 

A torn U.S. flag flies beyond a barbed wire fence in the United States.

 

In 2024, close to 80 percent of those seeking asylum, making their case to a Canadian immigration judge, were granted refugee status. The problem is that Canada has suffered the consequences of accepting too many immigrants, refugees and migrants over the past several years. For a country of 41-million people, bringing in a million a year in those categories has meant severe strains on the country's social support systems. 

 

Having to house and support that number of people deleteriously impacts the universal health care system, already strained beyond capacity to serve Canadians. Housing costs have soared in lock-step with a steadily rising population, leading to a crisis of insufficient housing stock and unsustainable market prices placing young Canadians out of contention for home ownership. Large numbers of foreign students studying at Canadian universities and given permission to seek  temporary employment has seen employment for young Canadians collapsing. Emergency housing meant for Canadians in duress is now crowded with refugees and migrants.

 

Roxham Road, a once-popular irregular border crossing between Canada and the United States, was closed last year. (Sarah Leavitt/CBC)