US border officials are offering rides as a side hustle to migrants in Quebec, Radio-Canada sources say
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is investigating reports that some of its border protection agents are driving asylum seekers in Quebec to the irregular border crossing on Roxham Road for money, picking up groups of people in nearby Plattsburgh, NY who are off-duty.
Sources have told Radio-Canada the practice “has been known of for a number of months,” adding that multiple agents are involved, but the exact number is unknown.
CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) said Friday it “received these allegations and is conducting an investigation,” but “the initiation of an OPR investigation is not an indication of wrongdoing or the establishment of a suspected wrongdoing.”
According to Radio-Canada sources, this situation has been reported to Canadian authorities.
Many people wishing to enter Canada use a regular bus route to get to Plattsburgh, which is about 30 minutes from Roxham Road.
From there they pass through a wooded passage and enter Canada and seek asylum.
CBSA says it is aware of the situation
When Radio-Canada first contacted the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), they confirmed in writing twice that they were aware of the transport situation involving US border guards and migrants.
“We are aware of the information you are reporting,” spokeswoman Jacqueline Roby said. She added that the CBSA “is in touch with the United States on irregular migration issues.”
In another written exchange, the CBSA repeated the same message while directing Radio-Canada to contact its American counterparts, the CBP.
A member of the CBSA then called Radio-Canada to find out his sources – which he did not disclose. The member also said that following Radio-Canada’s inquiries, the CBP called the CBSA about the situation.
The CBSA then sent a new written statement, saying it had “no comment regarding [these] Accusations.”
However, a source familiar with the matter later confirmed that the CBSA is indeed aware of the situation.
“A violation of the spirit of the law,” says the attorney
Under Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, anyone is prohibited from arranging, inviting, assisting or encouraging the entry of any person or persons into the country.
Immigration attorney Stéphane Handfield says the law could also apply to American agents.
“Driving someone who knows they’re going to cross the border is clearly against the spirit of the law,” Handfield said.
He also said that he was not surprised by the situation. Before the pandemic, he said, people of Haitian origin he represented told him similar stories of how they made it to the border.
“They were looking for the Roxham Road to get to Canada. Instead of arresting and jailing them for being undocumented in the United States, [border agents] put her in her car and drove her to Roxham,” he said.
Driving someone who knows they are about to cross the border is clearly against the spirit of the law. – Attorney Stephane Handfield
When asked about these reports, Canadian officials remained closed. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) would “neither confirm nor deny such information”.
“In order to protect our ongoing criminal investigation, we cannot comment on this type of situation,” RCMP spokesman Charles Poirier said.
For its part, the CBP said it “takes all allegations of wrongdoing very seriously” and stressed that a “thorough investigation” is underway.
Nearly 100,000 people have entered Canada to seek asylum, either via Roxham Road or by air, since the beginning of last year.
The majority of them have settled in the greater Montreal area, where organizations say they are overwhelmed and lack the resources to adequately care for them.
Many asylum seekers are also forced to work illegally because of work permits that take months to process, a Radio-Canada investigation has found.
Earlier this week, the New York City mayor’s office said the city funds transportation for migrants who want to go elsewhere. Some travel to Canada and Plattsburgh thanks to free bus tickets.
This prompted Alexis Brunelle Duceppe, an MP for the Bloc Québécois, to say in the House of Commons that “Americans are ridiculing the federal government”.
Quebec Immigration Minister Christine Fréchette also criticized New York’s move, saying the situation “above all shows how important it is to address the issue of Roxham Road and the [Safe Third Country Agreement]”between Canada and the United States.
The agreement forces asylum seekers to apply for asylum in the first “safe” country they reach. This means that border officials in Canada turn away potential asylum seekers who show up at official checkpoints from the US
However, the agreement does not apply to irregular border crossings such as the one at Roxham Road.
