Fleeing U.S. for Asylum, and Handcuffed in Canada
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said last week that there a significant increase over the last few months
in the number of people illegally crossing the border, mostly in Quebec, Manitoba and British Columbia.
François Gagnon, a spokesman for the Mounted Police, said
that the authorities started noticing an increase in the last few months of 2016 for reasons that were "not clear cut" but that might be related to the election of Donald J. Trump and his executive order on immigration in January.
This month, a Times report noted that over the last couple of years, a small number of people
had been crossing the border at Manitoba from the United States and then filing for asylum.
They are detained, interviewed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and turned over to the Canadian border agency.
Corporal Gagnon said that as soon as the would-be asylum seekers cross the border, they are advised that they would be arrested.
They are immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers who are streaming across the border from the United States into Canada in higher numbers.
" he said. that If nothing pops up, they are going to be turned over to the Canadian Border Services Agency and then they apply for asylum,
