Eight more asylum seekers crossed into Manitoba Thursday night through a stretch of unguarded wilderness marking the U.S.-Canada border, joining dozens of others who have fled north since U.S. President Donald Trump instituted his controversial travel ban.
With warm weather in the forecast, those numbers are expected to skyrocket this weekend.
“My gut feeling is we are going to have 40 to 50 people coming here just tonight or tomorrow morning,” Greg Janzen, reeve of the municipality of Emerson-Franklin, Man., told CTV News on Friday.
Asylum seekers have attempted to cross the border on foot in Quebec, British Columbia and Manitoba. Many of them are refugees from countries such as Somalia, one of seven Muslim-majority countries named in Trump’s executive order.
The travel ban is currently not in effect after it was suspended by a Seattle judge. The suspension was later upheld by an appeal court.
But those rulings have done little to slow the wave of asylum seekers coming north. At least 90 have crossed into Manitoba since Jan. 1. In Quebec, 452 refugee claimants were recorded in January, up from 74 in Dec. 2014, according to the Canada Border Services Agency.
Immigration lawyers say the reason the refugees cross illegally into Canada is so they can have a better chance of having their cases heard. If they attempt to cross at a regulated border crossing, they could be forced to turn back due to a U.S.-Canada agreement.
For many crossing into Manitoba, their first stop will be the tiny town of Emerson, where a group of volunteers has helped feed and house the asylum seekers once they arrive.
The community’s reeve suggested that asylum seekers should be allowed to cross at standard border checkpoints to help take pressure off the small community.
“Instead of them having to cross the border illegally, let them come up to the port of entry and do their claim at the port of entry, and not have to come through these small border towns,” Janzen said.
But that would require amendments to the Safe Third Country Agreement, a deal signed by the U.S. and Canada more than a decade ago that forces refugees to claim status in the first country they enter.
So far, the federal government has given no indication that it plans to revisit the agreement, despite outcry from several immigration critics who say that the U.S. is no longer a safe country for some refugees.
In hopes of slowing the illegal border traffic, the RCMP is appealing to U.S. authorities to help stop the flow.
“Really it is a plea for those in the communities. Community leaders to really convey the messaging that this activity of crossing the border can be extremely dangerous,” said RCMP assistant commissioner Scott Kolody.
With temperatures dropping well below zero, some asylum seekers have had to be hospitalized after making the frigid overnight journey. In one instance, a 24-year-old was hospitalized with severe frostbite to both his hands.
With a report from CTV’s Jill Macyshon
