The number of irregular migrants intercepted after entering the United States from Quebec has decreased slightly since the new version of the Safe Third Country Agreement came into effect and the closure of Roxham Road.
This is shown by data released Thursday by the US Customs Service.
After hitting an all-time high in March, the number of people intercepted by authorities after entering US soil irregularly in US Customs and Border Protection’s Swanton sector, which borders Quebec, fell slightly in April to s set to 677.
This number remains very high and exceeds the balance of the months all the other months of 2023, which had already established itself as a record year for the matter.
Faced with this growing number of interceptions, US Customs and Border Protection announced last month the strengthening of its “accelerated repatriation procedure for people who have illegally crossed the northern border of the United States”.
Thus, 204 migrants intercepted after entering from Canada to the United States were flown from the Swanton sector to the El Paso and Rio Grande Valley sectors, which border the southern border, with the ultimate goal of returning them. in their country of origin.
The same phenomenon in reverse
In the opposite direction, that is to say from the United States to Canada, the number of irregular migrants intercepted also seems to be decreasing, according to data recently published by the Toronto Star.
Since March 25 at midnight, when the new version of the Safe Third Country Agreement came into force and the closure of Roxham Road, a total of 546 cases of people have been treated in its establishments. , the Canada Border Services Agency told the Toronto daily.
Of this number, 300 were intercepted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
This is a considerable drop from the first two months of the year when 4,994 and 4,581 irregular migrants were intercepted in January and February respectively.
The new version of the safe third country agreement provides that a person who tries to enter Canada through the United States will be deported to that country, and vice versa, regardless of whether they made their attempt in an official entry point or not.
The latest version applied only to official entry points, hence the immense popularity of Roxham Road, which many migrants chose to enter Canada from the United States before applying for asylum once north. of the border.