Guess Who Wants Border Control Now? Our Happy Neighbors to the North!

By: Joseph Curl

Ever since President Trump took office, illegal aliens in the United States have been streaming across the border into Canada.

Now, Canadians, a happy people known for their politeness (and their proclivity to end sentences with ‘Eh?’) are getting fed up, the Washington Post reports.

Candidates for leadership of Canada’s opposition Conservative Party are calling for drastic measures to halt the flow of asylum seekers fleeing the United States into Canada, including deployment of the Canadian army to detain would-be refugees as they cross the border.

This get-tough approach reflects public opinion surveys that show a hardening of attitudes among some Canadians toward the asylum seekers and immigration in general, placing political pressure on the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Canadian news recently has been full of images of migrants trudging across snow-covered fields and through icy ditches, hauling small children and suitcases as they cross into Quebec, Manitoba and other provinces from U.S. border states. The phenomenon has gained momentum since Donald Trump was elected president in November.

Kevin O’Leary, a reality-TV celebrity and neophyte politician who has taken a Trumplike approach to his quest for the Conservative leadership, says illegal crossings are “unacceptable” and that Canada must beef up its border security to avert a flood of refugees. “I don’t want what’s happening in Europe to happen in Canada,” he said in a recent campaign video.

The flow has picked up steadily into Canada since Trump took office. “The border officer’s union in Canada wants to beef up security along the United States border after 382 people made asylum claims at a single entry point in January and a further 200 entered illegally in the last week,” the Daily Mail reported last month.

A small port town in Quebec has seen a surge in illegals sneaking into Canada. Jean-Pierre Fortin, president of the Customs and Immigration Union (CIU), said at least 200 people have illegally crossed the border and more come every day. Fortin added that the increase began in November — when Trump was elected president.

So far in 2017, Canadian authorities have detained more Mexicans than they did in 2016 — and 2015… and 2014, according to Reuters News Agency. The Canada Border Services Agency detained 444 Mexican nationals, compared with 410 for all of 2016, 351 for 2015, and 399 for 2014.

Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who initially sounded open to refugees coming into Canada, has made a move to counter the flow. A government official recently “hit back at suggestions that the border situation was out of control.”

“There is no ‘free ticket to Canada’ for those attempting to slip across the border,” said an official in the office of Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen. “Once irregular crossers are on Canadian soil, they are apprehended, identified, subject to security and health checks and dealt with according to Canadian law.”