U.S. directs its embassies in Western nations to scrutinize ‘mass migration’

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to travelling journalists at the John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport in Hamilton, Ont. on Nov. 12, 2025 after the G7 foreign ministers meeting. (Mandel Ngan/Pool Photo via AP) (Mandel Ngan)

The U.S. State Department has directed its embassies in Canada and other Western nations to scrutinize the impacts of “mass migration” — the Trump administration’s latest push to reshape the geopolitics of America’s longtime allies.

Last week’s dispatch to embassies directed diplomats in Ottawa, New Zealand, Australia and countries in western Europe to report on the human rights implications and public safety impacts of large-scale mass migration, calling it an “existential threat to Western civilization.”

In a Friday social media post shared by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the department said officials will “urge governments to take bold action and defend citizens against the threats posed by mass migration.”

Officials will also report “policies that punish citizens who object to continued mass migration and document crimes and human rights abuses committed by people of a migration background,” the department said.

On Monday, a senior State Department official speaking on background said the United States is not trying to tell other countries how to govern themselves but is rather cautioning them about importing a lot of people from what it claims are “radically different” cultures.

U.S. President Donald Trump has long been critical of Europe’s immigration policies and Vice-President JD Vance made waves with a speech lambasting European democracies over migrants and free speech at the Munich Security Conference earlier this year.

Vance also took aim at Canada in a social media post on Friday. He linked what he called Canada’s “stagnating living standards” to “immigration insanity.”

“And with all due respect to my Canadian friends, whose politics focus obsessively on the United States: your stagnating living standards have nothing to do with Donald Trump or whatever bogeyman the CBC tells you to blame,” Vance said in the post. “The fault lies with your leadership, elected by you.”

The senior State Department official acknowledged Monday that migration is significantly different in countries like Australia, New Zealand and Canada compared to their European allies.

“But it’s what we see as a growing propensity among … liberal democracies in the world to buy into the globalized migration narrative hook, line, and sinker,” the official said. “The idea that you can just import large amounts of people from a different culture — a radically different culture even — and assume that everything will be fine and hunky dory when case studies have shown that that isn’t the case.”

The official said they are particularly concerned with displacement, pressures on housing and the prospect of a “two-tiered” justice system that treats migrants differently. The official largely pointed to issues in Europe and did not mention anything specifically about Canada.

The cable directed the embassies to collect information for the U.S. Human Rights Report and to communicate the United States’ willingness to work on the issue, the official added.

Canada has long prided itself on its diverse population. But support for high immigration levels cratered in recent years, thanks in part to a tight housing market and high unemployment, particularly among youth.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has committed to getting immigration “under control.” His Liberal government plans to reduce the number of temporary workers for 2026 and has cut the planned number of student visas for the next three years essentially in half.

The federal government is also reducing the number of refugees, protected persons and people receiving permanent residency on humanitarian grounds it admits in 2026.

Canada’s action on migration is important to the Trump administration, the unnamed official said, adding “we would hope that our Canadian friends would be strong on this issue as well.”

“There are people in Canada who have voiced very serious concerns about migration inflows, just as people have voiced concerns here in the United States, and President Trump has decided to answer that call very bravely and boldly,” the official said.

Canada’s refugee system was overrun during the first Trump administration when people began migrating north across the Canada-U.S. border using a loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement that allowed people who skirted official border crossings to make a claim.

That loophole was closed under the Biden administration, resulting in a dramatic drop in the number of people crossing into Canada from the U.S. at unofficial border crossings.

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press