The result was predictable. Justin Trudeau’s government had been warned of this. The Prime Minister nevertheless persisted, as soon as he came to power, to lift the visa requirement imposed by his predecessor on Mexican nationals. And Canada is inevitably struggling today to manage the explosion in their arrivals and asylum requests, which could have been avoided, had it not been for the political relentlessness of the Prime Minister to the detriment of good public policy.
Last month, Radio-Canada told us that Ottawa is now opening the door to a reversal of this ill-advised decision. A wise about-face, if it is confirmed. Because nothing justified eliminating the imposition of visas on travelers from Mexico in 2016, apart from Justin Trudeau’s desire to honor an electoral promise, to dismantle at the same time the legacy of his conservative predecessor and to try, as soon as elected , to build a reputation on the international scene.
Federal officials had even warned Justin Trudeau’s troops of the risks of such an amendment to his immigration policy: that nationals of other countries would provide themselves with false passports from Mexico to be able to freely enter Canada, that members of the organized crime sneaks in to settle in the country and unjustified asylum requests multiply. Seven years later, this is precisely what the Canadian authorities are seeing, revealed a series of reports from Radio-Canada last fall. It seems that Mr. Trudeau would have done better to rely on the expertise of the federal public service rather than on his simple political will. What a crazy idea.
Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper imposed in 2009, to the great annoyance of Mexico, the obligation for its nationals to obtain a visa to travel to Canada. The number of asylum requests presented by Mexicans upon their arrival on Canadian soil then reached records (9,500 in 2009 alone), after almost tripling over the previous three years. The effect was immediate, and these requests fell to only 90 five years later.
But as soon as the visa was replaced by a simple electronic travel authorization, the trend was inevitably reversed. In 2022, following the complete post-pandemic reopening of borders, nearly 8,000 Mexican nationals requested refugee status at Canadian airport customs between January and October — including 82% at Montreal international airport. Despite everything, the Trudeau government — which had suggested in 2016, to allay the fears raised by its own officials, that it would cap the arrival of Mexican migrants at 3,500 per year — then still refused to adapt its reception policy .
During the first nine months of 2023, this figure would have reached 17,500 applications. However, barely 30% of these are accepted on average. The arrival of a visa in 2009 caused the number of false applications submitted to drop by 85%.
Quebec has been worried since last year about this new flow of arrivals by plane, which are not equivalent to the number of irregular entries from Roxham Road, closed last March, but which still occur disproportionately in Montreal . The United States added its voice, noting that the irregular entry of Mexicans into their territory, although much less through their northern border, had more than quadrupled between 2015 and 2023 (more than 4,800 arrests last year).
While François Legault’s government is still waiting for Ottawa to acquiesce in its request for reimbursement for the almost exclusive reception of migrants on its territory, the grievances of the Americans have visibly further convinced the Canadian government that the status quo was untenable . The deaf ear reserved for Quebec turned out to be all ears for Washington.
We now hope that the Trudeau government will quickly mature its thinking and finally admit its error. The economic precariousness and security instability plaguing Mexico do not allow – and unfortunately have never allowed for 10 years – an open and uncontrolled door to its nationals. The Mexico-Montreal air link cannot become a sieve, with repercussions widely documented in recent months.
Quebec, first of all, finds itself welcoming a number of asylum seekers that is increasingly difficult for its public services to manage. And it is the integrity of the Canadian immigration system that risks being weakened. This arbitrary about-face, which never happened, must now once and for all be reversed.