Asylum claims spike at Quebec border crossing, despite national drop

People enter a processing centre at the Canada/US border crossing in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Que., Thursday, April 10, 2025. (The Canadian Press/Graham Hughes)

The number of asylum seekers entering Quebec through the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle border crossing has nearly doubled this year, according to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). But, overall requests in the province went down.

From Jan. 1 to July 6, 8,396 asylum applications were processed at the Lacolle port of entry — up from 4,613 during the same period last year.

The surge was particularly sharp in early July. The agency recorded 761 claims at Lacolle in the first six days of the month, compared to 149 over the same stretch in 2024.

Abdulla Daoud, executive director of the Montreal Refugee Centre, noted the figures are preliminary and could change once official numbers are published on the CBSA’s website.

Asylum claims in Quebec are down

Despite the rise at Lacolle, overall asylum claims in Quebec are down. The CBSA says it processed 12,114 claims in the province as of June 30, a drop from 20,533 over the same period last year.

“So just because we’re seeing an uptick at one particular crossing does not mean that overall numbers are going up, it just means that crossing is just seen an increase compared to a previous year,” Daoud explained.

The border agency says it conducted assessments across the country and has plans to effectively handle increased volumes of asylum claims. Its mitigation plan follows a tiered approach.

Those measures include deploying more personnel where needed, upgrading infrastructure, leasing nearby facilities to provide more processing space, installing remote connectivity to process asylum seekers, and holding individuals who need to be returned to the U.S.

Daoud also said the drop in asylum claims could be attributed to the growing difficulty of migration, and not just in Canada but across the world.

“People always underestimate how hard it is to get to Canada. We are surrounded by different bodies of water and only really share one border with the U.S.,” he said.

“We don’t really have a way to get into Canada other than through the airport or through border crossing, and the airport is typically the main route for people arriving.”

The CBSA said that in Lacolle, it’s working with Public Services and Procurement Canada to lease extra space that would serve as a processing centre for refugee claimants.

Asylum claims also drop nationwide

Asylum claims across Canada have also dropped this year.

The border agency says it has processed about 18,608 asylum claims in Canada so far in 2025, compared to roughly 37,830 by this time last year – a decline of nearly 51 per cent.

The total includes would-be refugees who are found ineligible to claim asylum in Canada, which is the case for many of those who try to enter the country from the U.S.

Daoud said he does not believe the U.S. anti-immigration policies are having much of an impact on the number of asylum claims in Canada.

“Last year, if you look at the numbers, the Immigration and Refugee Board — which decides whether claims are legitimate — accepted 83 per cent of the people who had their day in court. So, a high number of them do have a legitimate fear of persecution,” he said.

“Before the Safe Third Country Agreement was changed, a lot of people came through Quebec at Roxham Road. They weren’t living in the U.S., they were just transiting, maybe for a few days, because they didn’t feel they’d get a fair shot there, especially under the Trump administration.”

Under the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement, people must claim asylum in whichever country they arrive in first, meaning they can’t leave the U.S. to seek refugee status in Canada.

However, some people qualify for exceptions to the agreement, most notably those who have a family member in Canada, and must prove their eligibility during an interview with border agents.

As of March 2023, the governments of Canada and the U.S. announced an additional protocol to STCA, extending its scope to the entire land border. If a person fails to meet an exception to the STCA, they will be returned to the U.S.

Removals from Canada are on the rise

According to the agency, from Jan. 1 to July 7, 2,050 asylum claimants were removed to the U.S. for their ineligibility under the STCA.

“The CBSA removed over 18,000 inadmissible people last fiscal year – the most in a decade. As part of Canada’s Border Plan, the CBSA has committed to increasing the number of removals to 20,000 for the next two fiscal years,” the agency said.

Since the start of the year, most of the asylum seekers arriving in Canada have come from Haiti, Venezuela and the U.S., the agency said.

“In Quebec, we do have a sizable Haitian community. The Haitian community is one of the communities that’s being targeted in the U.S. Thus we are seeing the ones who have the opportunity to come reunite with their family members here and claim asylum which is completely within their rights,” Daoud said.

He added that the number of refugee claimants from Haiti remains overall small.

With files from the Canadian Press.