Bengaluru
As immigration relief measures, such as those contained in the recently defeated farm bill, stall in Congress and the administration continues its campaign to clamp down on immigration, millions of illegal immigrants, and even lawful immigrants facing the end of their Temporary Protected Status (TPS), are being forced to explore alternatives to their lives in the U.S. or returning to their countries of origin. To them it is a choice between a life under siege in the U.S., or the dread of return to impossible conditions back home. Increasingly, these immigrants are choosing to go to Canada to claim asylum there. However, they know that if they apply for asylum at a Canadian port of entry, they will likely be turned away because of the Third Country agreement between the two countries. That agreement normally requires people to apply for asylum in the country where they first arrive. In the case of U.S. immigrants, that means they should claim asylum in America. But by illegally walking across the Canadian border, such as into Quebec, B.C. and Manitoba, they can avoid being returned to the U.S. and instead are channeled into the internal Canadian refugee claims process because that is what is required of Canada under the U.N. Refugee Convention and its Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
