U.S. and Canada Reach Agreement on Northern Border Asylum Seekers : NPR

An officer speaks to migrants as they arrive at the Roxham Road border crossing in Quebec, Canada, earlier this month.

Sebastien St-Jean/AFP via Getty Images

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Sebastien St-Jean/AFP via Getty Images

An officer speaks to migrants as they arrive at the Roxham Road border crossing in Quebec, Canada, earlier this month.

Sebastien St-Jean/AFP via Getty Images

The United States and Canada have reached an agreement that would allow the two countries to refuse more migrants at unofficial border crossings, according to a rule expected to be published in the Federal Register.

President Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are expected to announce the deal today in Ottawa.

The new agreement, which will take effect early Saturday morning, will allow Canada to send asylum seekers who cross the border at unofficial crossings back to the United States, and vice versa. according to the published text of the rule.

The deal is the latest move by the Biden administration to discourage migrants from illegally crossing the border to seek asylum, despite objections from immigrant advocates and some Democrats.

The United States and Canada have long had a “safe third country agreement” in place that allows them to refuse migrants if they cross official ports of entry. But Canada has seen a dramatic increase in traffic at unofficial crossings.

Last year, more than 39,000 asylum seekers entered Quebec outside official ports of entry, many of whom took Roxham Road, a small road in northern New York that ends in a dead end at the border. Canadian-American. This has led Canadian officials to call for tougher restrictions.

Many of these migrants first arrived in the United States at the southern border and were transported by bus to New York. But tens of thousands of people have since found themselves in limbo, unable to legally work or send money to loved ones in Venezuela and other countries in Latin America and beyond.

As part of the deal, Canada has also agreed to accept an additional 15,000 migrants a year from the Western Hemisphere.

Still, immigrant advocates have criticized the deal for limiting the movement of asylum seekers.

“Asylum seekers flee violent conditions to build a better future for themselves and their families – they undertake extreme journeys of thousands of miles in search of safety and relief,” said Murad Awawdeh, Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition, in a statement. “To restrict the movement of asylum seekers now is to recklessly endanger their lives.