OTTAWA – Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said Thursday Canada will stand firm on its plan to rein in the number of newcomers entering the country, despite concerns that Donald Trump’s re-election could spur an influx of migrants from the United States.
Trump’s decisive win this week immediately launched discussions about the border because he has promised mass deportations of people who are in the country illegally or without proper documentation.
Anti-immigration policies and rhetoric during his first administration prompted a surge of migrants into Canada, in particular at a rural border road in Quebec.
Canada recently announced plans to cut back on the number of newcomers and Joly said that won’t change when asked Thursday by a reporter what Canada’s plan is for a possible surge of migrants.
“We want a migration system that Canadians trust,” Joly said. “We will defend it, and that’s why also we decided to lower the immigration targets 20 per cent to have the trust of the Canadian people in it.”
NDP MP Jenny Kwan said Ottawa needs a plan that will prepare for an influx of migrants in a humanitarian way.
“What needs to happen is for them to be open and transparent with Canadians,” she said.
Following Trump’s win, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau revived a Canada-U.S. relations cabinet committee that hadn’t met since Trump left office in 2021. Immigration Minister Marc Miller and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, who is responsible for the Canada Border Services Agency, are among its members.
“We are ready with a plan,” Joly said of the incoming Trump administration, and noted the committee will hold its first meeting Friday.
Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet accused the Liberals of long downplaying the issue of asylum seekers entering Canada through the Roxham Road border crossing in Quebec.
“Once again, the government is refusing to acknowledge an obvious and very serious situation,” he said, and called on Ottawa to staff up at border entry points.
The situation may not be exactly as it was in 2017.
Last year, when President Joe Biden was in Ottawa, he and Trudeau announced a deal to amend the Safe Third Country Agreement. That policy means asylum seekers are not eligible to make a claim if entering either country from the other, but previously it only applied at official border crossings.
It now applies to the entire border, and asylum claims being made at unofficial crossings have dropped substantially.
Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., also said migrants are likely to take a wait-and-see approach since not everything Trump says turns into policy.
“It doesn’t mean that some people will not leave, possibly, but I think the nature of the action by the Trump administration will determine whether people change their intentions about staying in the country or not,” he said.
He also said how Canada responds will play a major role in whether there will be a migrant “crisis or not.”
“If they believe that there is no welcome mat in Canada, they’re not going to go,” he said.
In 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted the country would welcome refugees shortly after Trump issued an executive order banning refugees from Muslim-majority countries — a move widely seen as responding to Trump’s policy.
“To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada,” he posted on social media.
It was later reported through documents acquired through an access to information request that the tweet resulted in an influx of inquiries on how to seek asylum in Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
-With files from Maura Forrest in Montreal.
