Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale defined the Liberal government’s policy on illegal refugees streaming across the Canada-U.S. border as one of “when they’re here, they’re here.”
Goodale was responding to questions on CTV’s Question Period Sunday morning. Meanwhile, the president of the union that represents the border guards says the situation at the border is a “crisis” as illegals take buses and taxis to the New York-Quebec border.
Goodale isn’t prepared to call it a crisis and he expressed disdain for suggestions from the Conservative opposition that the illegals be arrested.
“I guess what the Conservatives are saying is maybe we should line up the RCMP at the border, they should all link arms and shoo people away, or maybe [use] fire hoses or whatever, to keep people from crossing at the border,” Goodale said.
“The fact of the matter is if someone comes across the border, and finds themselves in Canada, and claims asylum…when they’re here, they’re here. And according to Canadian law, and according to international law, we have to deal with those people in a certain way,” he said.
The public safety minister is sticking to his catch-and-release approach to the refugee crisis, where so-called “asylum seekers” are sometimes detained by the RCMP and moved to an official border crossing where they are questioned by Canadian Border Service guards. The majority are then released as refugees.
Goodale continues to insist that he isn’t sure why the illegals are coming to Canada, even though numerous reports are indicating that a large number are originally from Somalia and are traveling to the Canadian border from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where there is a large number of Somali expatriates living.
The national president of the Customs and Immigration Union told the Toronto Sun that the illegals are getting to the border after getting off planes in New York state and then taking buses to the border.
“There is a trend right now,” said Jean-Pierre Fortin. “People are leaving from different countries and flying into New York City and they’re taking a bus.”
They proceed from the bus to a taxi cab that takes them to the border and they walk right across.
Fortin says the exodus is not related to President Donald Trump’s immigration and refugee policies. “The Americans are well aware of what’s taking place right now. They’re not making it harder for them.”
But he says it is making it harder for Canada to broadcast the right message about border security.
“Right now the world is watching us,” Fortin said. “People are saying, ‘We didn’t know it was that easy to come across the border.’”
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