Ottawa is looking for premises to accommodate asylum seekers at the border | Closure of the Roxham path

As US President Donald Trump (new window) multiplies threats against illegal immigrantsthe Canadian government is looking for new premises on the Canadian-American border to welcome them.

In an announcement published online on Wednesday by Public Services and Foreign Canada (SPAC), Ottawa indicates that it wants to rent spaces that can accommodate up to 200 people, near the border post of St-Bernard-de-Lacolle.

These will serve as Administrative treatment center. In other words, they would make it possible to analyze identity documents and asylum requests customers expected.

It is by this sector, already, that from 2017 tens of thousands of people left the United States, a few months after the first election of Donald Trump, to join Canada through Roxham path.

[L’immeuble doit] Be large enough and provided with equipment, facilities and infrastructure necessary to accommodate an office space, a reception area, a meal distribution area and a waiting room with a capacity of 50 to 200 people.

This land, which Ottawa is looking for within a radius of 15 kilometers from the border post of St-Bernard-de-Lacolle, must also be large enough to allow traffic traffic and parkingbut also for allow the installation of storage containers and trailersspecifies the federal offer.

Such arrangements had already emerged along the highway, near the border, to welcome and house asylum seekers from Roxham Chemin. They were then gradually withdrawn, like the modular complex located at the end of the Roxham path, demolished in September 2023.

No indications of a wave of refugees

To date, nothing indicates, however, that a situation similar to the years spent on the Roxham path is repeated.

According to our information, since the re -election of Donald Trump last fall, the number of illegal entrances to Canada – clandestine passages (new window) are done more in the other direction – has not increased significantly, any more than land requests by land.

Proof, moreover, that the Canadian authorities sail a little in vagueness, Ottawa only seeks to rent premises for a period of one year, from May 1, 2025, with four three -month renewal options.

Since the return to power of the American president, Canadian authorities have multiplied actions and speeches to secure the border. Additional agents (new window) have been added to southern Quebec, and Ottawa has promised new technologies, such as drones, infrared sensors and helicopters.

For his part, as soon as he swores, Donald Trump confirmed his desire to expel millions of people (new window). He also suspended the refugee entrance (new window) in the United States.

In 2017, his actions had led to the arrival in Quebec of thousands of Haitian and Nigerian nationals, installed for years in the United States. Subsequently, Roxham path became world famous and migrants from multiple places in the world used this border route to ask for asylum in Canada.

Until March 2023 and the revision of the agreement on third parties safe (new window) Concluded by Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden, more than 113,000 asylum applications were made from Roxham path, where the Canadian authorities had installed and then enlarged and modernized their facilities.

The renegotiation of this Canadian-American agreement strongly tightened the rules around asylum requests by land. Now, whatever the point of entry, an asylum application must be made in the first of the two countries crossed.

Exceptions exist, however, in particular concerning minors or family members. The persons concerned can apply directly in a border post.