Canada sees increase of asylum seekers amid Trump’s push for deportations
Asylum claims have grown in Canada as authorities and lawmakers in the United States enact aggressive policies and tactics that appear to be driving migrants and some U.S. citizens away from America. The news came as reports surged that Canada has been turning asylum seekers away from the country to the U.S., Reuters reported.
A report in Bloomberg, a financial news site, revealed that Canada’s Border Services Agency, CBSA, has received more than 5,500 asylum claims at the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle border crossing just south of Montreal since the beginning of July. The timing coincided with President Donald Trump inflating U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s budget with his One Big Beautiful Bill. Along with increased immigration enforcement, the bill funded thousands of new positions at ICE and detention centers.
According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, 58,766 people are in ICE detention as of Sept. 7. It’s a steady increase in total detainees. ICE went from arresting 14,882 people as of Jan. 26 to 44,844 people as of Sept. 7, a 201.33% increase. However, U.S. Customs and Border Protection saw a 42.8% decrease in that same time frame.
The Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle port of entry borders Champlain, New York.
Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers President Aisling Bondy told Bloomberg that ICE raids could be influencing people who secretly lived in the U.S. for several years to reconsider staying and heading to Canada.
The publication reported CBSA saw a 263% increase in claims for July compared to the same time period last year. Data from the agency showed Haitians, Americans and Venezuelans are the largest groups seeking asylum. For Americans, that often included American-born children of parents who don’t have immigration papers.
Shortly after taking office, Trump removed Temporary Protected Status for a large group of Venezuelan migrants.
Asylum seekers turned away
Seeking asylum in Canada has been tricky for some people, as the Canadian government has turned them away due to a bilateral pact signed with the U.S. It could mean American immigration authorities deporting the migrants to a different country.
An immigration lawyer told Bloomberg that American citizens will face difficulty convincing CBSA they need asylum protection in Canada. She said the success rate is low and comes with a threat that they could face American immigration authorities.
“There’s a genuine fear that people have — with the administration that’s currently in place in the U.S. — to even approach a port of entry to initiate a refugee claim,” said Bjorna Shkurti, a Canada-based immigration lawyer from Caron and Partners LLP.
Those asylum seekers would face U.S. immigration enforcement due to the Safe Third Country Agreement, which requires people to seek asylum in the first country they were present in, rather than the country they approached, according to the Canadian government. That means a migrant who crossed from Canada into America can be turned back to Canadian immigration authorities for asylum processing. The agreement has been in effect since 2004.
In the first eight months of 2025, Canada turned away 3,282 people under the parameters of the agreement. It’s an 801-person increase from the same time frame in 2024. July had the highest number of denials at 789 people.
Canada only designated the U.S. as a safe third country. The U.S. designated Canada and Paraguay as safe third countries.
Certain exclusions are allowed in the agreement, such as family members, unaccompanied minors, document holders and public interest. People can still be denied refugee status if they have a legitimate exclusion, such as if they were previously denied entry to Canada for security reasons.
Unauthorized migration from the northern border with Canada has increased by 165.6% from January to July this year compared to the same period last year, according to nationwide encounters from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Border Patrol agents previously said they’ve faced an unprecedented number of illegal crossings at the Canada-U.S. border, and locals told NPR last year that the remote terrain in many northern states would make that crossing more difficult than ones in the south.
New York’s Clinton County Sheriff David Favro told CBS 60 Minutes that his office has responded to weekly 911 calls in the middle of the winter for reports of people lost in the woods, and some where migrants suffered from frostbite. Favro added desperation to enter the U.S. has made people forget that frostbite is setting in as they make their way.
“They’re up against a lot,” Favro told the program. “And the worst thing that they’re up against is the freezing cold, because the temperatures, you’re walking through the snow and your pants are getting wet, your boots are gonna start soaking through eventually, and they don’t even realize.”
If Canada returned a person to the U.S., Homeland Security told Reuters that it would deport them to an unaffiliated country if a person is unsuccessful in their asylum claims and their home countries refuse to accept them.
“If their home country will not take them, we will make arrangements for them to go to another country,” Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the international news agency in an email.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
