Federal document says Roxham Road deal 'challenging' to enforce, will cost more than $60M

The agreement restricting entry of asylum claimants into Canada from the U.S., effectively closing Roxham Road in Quebec, will be challenging for law enforcement to implement and could lead asylum seekers to face increased dangers, according to a government analysis. 

The document, prepared by the federal government as part of the regulatory changes to the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), provides new details on the deal's objectives, including reducing pressure on Canada's immigration system, its costs, and potential impacts. 

It also states that "public confidence in Canada's ability to manage the border" was a key motivation behind the changes to the agreement, announced three weeks ago during U.S. President Joe Biden's visit to Ottawa. 

The amendments will cost $61.5 million over 10 years to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada as well as the Canadian Border Services Agency and could lead asylum seekers to "face increased danger" in trying to evade detection while crossing into Canada — now that turning themselves into immigration services immediately after entering outside of an official crossing is no longer an option. 

"They may also face risks from exposure to extreme weather conditions if they cross at remote locations or fail to secure access to shelter," says the document published last week in the Canada Gazette government publication, and first reported on by Montreal-based newspaper Le Devoir.  

It also says the changes could increase risks of human trafficking and sexual violence "often disproportionately targeted at migrant women, girls and LGBTQI individuals."

The government did not conduct any public consultations, the document said, in order to avoid creating a surge of asylum seekers at the border. It also says the government could not measure the impact of the new deal on reducing the number of asylum-seeker crossings over the land border, its main objective.

But a rise in crossings at Roxham Road, a popular unofficial border crossing south of Montreal, in the past year undermined Canada and the U.S.'s Safe Third Country Agreement, which states asylum seekers must claim asylum in the first safe country they arrive in — typically the U.S. 

"These challenges have been reflected in negative media coverage," the document said. "The benefits of a reduction in asylum claimants are not quantified or monetized."

"There may be further pressure on RCMP resources. It will be challenging for the RCMP to consistently enforce the regulations given the size and terrain of Canada's landscape, challenges posed by Indigenous and private lands, as well as the limitations of existing border technology," continued the document. 

The Canada-U.S. border is the world's longest, measuring about 8,900 kilometres. 

Indigenous communities near the border could also face an additional burden, the document says, noting the federal government intends to monitor changes in migration routes and offer "technical briefings" to border communities who could see an increase in asylum seekers crossing by foot or over waterways. 

Earlier this month, the bodies of eight people who drowned attempting to cross into the U.S. from Canada through the Kanien'kehá:ka community of Akwesasne were found in the St. Lawrence River. They were members of two families, one from India and one from Romania, including two toddlers, aged one and two.  

Though the families were trying to get to the States and not Canada, advocates and migration experts said it was an example of what could happen to asylum seekers going the other way, attempting to evade the changes to the STCA.

'Virtual border wall'

"This is just one of many that will unfold, as tragedies," Reena Kukreja, an assistant professor at Queen's University, who studies border policies and South Asian migration, told CBC News at the time.

Viviane Albuquerque, a Montreal-based immigration lawyer, calls the change a "virtual border wall," as a result of the increased surveillance and enforcement listed in the document. In the meantime, clients have been asking about the 15,000 spots Canada said it would open up to asylum seekers through regular channels in exchange for the STCA changes. 

"We haven't heard anything on that. I haven't heard how and where," Albuquerque said.

Ruben Zaiotti, an associate professor in political science at Dalhousie University and the Jean Monnet Chair in Border Control, says the federal document in the Canada Gazette shows the discrepancy between policy makers' perception of a problem and how it is sometimes presented by politicians. 

"Internally, the bureaucracy, they're aware of the issues. It's just that … politically, you need to show that you're doing something that really seems to solve the problem, even if it doesn't," Zaiotti said in an interview Monday.

Restricting border access to asylum seekers is part of an ongoing trend in how Western governments respond to public pressure, or perceived public pressure, on immigration since the early 2000s, said Zaoitti, who edited a textbook called Externalizing Migration Management: Europe, North America and the spread of 'remote control' practices and published in 2016. 

The STCA was first ratified in 2005, after negotiations over the agreement began after 9/11. There are similar agreements in Europe, but Zaiotti points out the number of asylum seekers who crossed the border into Canada outside of official ports of entry, despite a surge of 40,000 last year, still represent a fraction of what European countries have been seeing for years. 

"If you think about it, you could deal with this issue, in terms of the framing, as a humanitarian issue. These are people who need help. That's what it is. So, you try to do everything you can to help them, but that's not the way it's being framed," he said. 

Instead, asylum seekers crossing into Western countries on foot or by boat have been perceived as threatening in various ways, Zaiotti said, adding there has been shift in recent decades. 

"We seem to be living in a time where everything is politicized. Social media played a part in that so that people are more aware of what's going on or at least made aware of certain issues that makes the position of governments very difficult to look at the long term. They have to respond right now and show to be tough on issues such as this one," he said. 

The list of benefits of the STCA amendments in the Canada Gazette publication include public confidence in Canada's asylum system, a potential reduction in "irregular arrivals into Canada," savings related to that potential reduction and enhanced collaboration between Canada and the U.S. on migration issues.