Canada prepares for a wave of immigration in the wake of Trump’s election

“We are preparing for the worst”: Canadian authorities indicated on Friday that they were in a “state of high alert” at the border with the United States, awaiting a possible influx of migrants fleeing the promised “massive” expulsions by Donald Trump.

During his campaign, the Republican billionaire, who won Tuesday’s US presidential election, used violent rhetoric towards migrants, accusing them of “poisoning American blood”, and promising mass expulsions.

Already, during his first term from 2017 to 2021, tens of thousands of people had fled the United States to reach Canada, which had difficulty managing this exceptional influx. “We are on high alert, (…) our eyes fixed on the border to see what will happen,” Charles Poirier, spokesperson for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, told AFP. (GRC).

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Authorities expect an increase in “irregular immigration to Canada” in the days and weeks to come, before Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, he said. In government, Chrystia Freeland, the Deputy Prime Minister, wanted to reassure Canadians, maintaining that she had “a plan”, without however detailing it. “Our borders are safe and secure and we control them,” she said after meeting with a new group of ministers tasked with thorny issues that could arise between Ottawa and the incoming Trump administration.

Fears of such a massive migration wave come as Canada lowers its own immigration targets. Justin Trudeau’s government recently said it wanted to slow the country’s population growth in order to preserve and strengthen key infrastructure and social services. This week, the Prime Minister of Quebec, François Legault, also expressed his concerns about a “massive arrival of immigrants”, which would exceed the reception capacities of his province, already severely tested.

Spike in Google searches

In the wake of the US election, Google searches for how to “immigrate to Canada”, the “Canadian immigration process” and “how to move to Canada” increased tenfold in the United States, according to the search engine. The sites of the Canadian Department of Immigration have also experienced “an increase in traffic from the United States,” said a spokesperson for the department.

To come to the country legally, Ottawa estimates that processing applications for permanent residence can currently take up to a year, and applications for refugee status up to 44 months. Furthermore, recent changes to the migration agreements between Washington and Ottawa make filing an asylum application in Canada more complex and can more easily lead to deportation to the United States. And trying to enter Canada between border crossings is illegal and dangerous, especially in winter, recalled Charles Poirier of the RCMP. “Amputations”, “frostbite”, “severe hypothermia” are common, he stressed. In recent years, several people, sometimes entire families, have lost their lives trying to cross the border.

Canadian authorities plan to deploy “more personnel” along the world’s longest unmilitarized border in the coming days. Cameras, motion sensors and drones have also been installed along this 8,891 kilometer long space, and Canada and the United States are in constant communication, said the spokesperson for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Despite all this preparation, if thousands of migrants were to arrive at the same time and pass through several crossing points, “it could become unmanageable,” he warned.