WASHINGTON - The United States and Canada have reached an agreement that will allow both countries to divert asylum seekers from their borders at a time when migration has surged across the hemisphere, a US official familiar with the agreement said Thursday.
The agreement, which will be announced by President Joe Biden and Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau
on Friday after the two leaders meet in Ottawa, Ontario, will allow Canada to return migrants at Roxham Road, a popular unofficial crossing point from New York for migrants seeking asylum in Canada.
Migrants board a bus after arriving at the Roxham Road border crossing in Saint-Bernard-De-Lacolle, Quebec, Canada, from New York state.
(Nasuna Stuart-Ulin/The New York Times)
In exchange, Canada has agreed to offer a new
legal refugee program
for 15,000 migrants fleeing violence, persecution and economic devastation in South and Central America, the official said, which will ease the pressure of illegal crossings into the United States. United from Mexico.
Biden arrived in Ottawa late Thursday for a 24-hour visit meant to underline the unity of purpose between the United States and Canada after four years of
icy
and even openly hostile exchanges between Trudeau and former President
Donald Trump.
But the visit - long delayed from its usual place as the first foreign trip by a US president after taking office - will also expose some tough issues between the two countries, including the long-running debate over how to govern the movement of people. across the border between them.
The agreement eliminates one of the relatively few disputes between Trudeau and Biden.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss differences over how to stabilize
Haiti,
and the global race to develop critical minerals needed to make batteries and other technologies.
But the deal is likely to further infuriate refugee advocates, already frustrated by Biden's decision to crack down on asylum seekers at the
Mexican border.
The Trudeau government has been pushing for months to expand the 2004 immigration treaty with the United States, which limits the number of asylum seekers Canada can turn away at its border and return to the United States.
Treaty
The treaty only allows Canada to return a migrant - for example, someone fleeing violence in
El Salvador
- if the person crosses through an official port of entry between the two countries.
Crossings at unofficial entry points, such as Roxham Road, have increased in recent years, putting pressure on Trudeau to limit them.
(Asylum seekers arriving from other countries by plane or boat are not covered by the agreement, regardless of where they enter. They are comparatively few and, in many cases, detained until their hearings.)
Until recently, US officials have resisted changing the treaty.
But government members on both sides of the border said talks had been held in an attempt to resolve the issue before the one-day summit.
For Biden, the agreement could help reduce the record number of migrants who have headed to the southern border through Mexico, driven by
political instability
across the region and economic changes that have increased poverty.
The idea is that the agreement will divert up to 15,000 migrants a year from that dangerous journey, leaving the Biden administration with fewer migrants to turn away.
On the US northern border, the agreement will allow Canada to return to the United States immigrants who have decided to try their luck with the Canadian asylum system instead of obtaining protection in the United States.
The Trudeau government has welcomed Syrian and other refugees and has pledged to increase immigration, giving Canada a reputation as more open to immigrants than many other Western nations.
But in the past year, with increased immigration at Canada's borders, there are signs that the country's famed hospitality to immigrants may be waning.
https://www.clarin.com/new-york-times-international-weekly/cierran-remoto-archipielago-florida-llegada-cientos-migrantes_0_btumXFDRfd.html The almost 40,000 migrants who crossed the country last year - more than double the in 2019 - have given Canada a small taste of the challenges other Western countries have faced in settling refugees and have led Trudeau's opponents to call on him to renegotiate a key asylum-seekers deal with the United States.
The number of people arriving each month has skyrocketed, with almost 5,000 people arriving in January.
On Friday, Biden will meet Trudeau and address the Canadian Parliament, a tradition adhered to by former Presidents Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. .
Relationship
Senior US officials in Canada and Washington noted the personal chemistry between the current leaders.
An official, speaking to reporters this week, said the prime minister and president have a "Justin and Joe" relationship that includes each having the other "on speed dial" for frequent queries.
This is due in part to Biden's long history with the Trudeau family.
When he was a young senator in the early 1970s, Biden met Trudeau's father, Pierre, who was then the country's prime minister.
In a speech six years ago, Biden praised Pierre Trudeau as a "decent and honorable" man who had raised a successful son.
Officials said Biden would use the speech to highlight years of cooperation between the two countries on the Ukraine war, climate change, the confrontation with China and the global economy.
They said he would also talk about the mutual benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act and the Chip Act, which offer incentives to US companies for the production of silicon chips, car batteries and steel.
"In the first year of this administration, we focused on rebuilding that bilateral relationship," said John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council.
"This visit consists of taking stock of what we have done, where we are and what we should prioritize for the future."
The spirit of cooperation contrasts with the tension during the Trump Administration.
In 2018, after attending a Group of 7 summit meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec, Trump angrily withheld his signature on the leaders' statement and attacked Trudeau as "very dishonest and weak."
The relationship between the two men never improved.
Officials from both sides expect much more harmonious meetings during the current visit, which will conclude with a gala dinner at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum.
But the agenda includes some issues on which the two countries disagree.
Biden and Trudeau are also expected to discuss efforts to help stabilize Haiti in the aftermath of devastating natural disasters and political unrest and violence.
The United States has said it believes an international security force is necessary and has urged Canada, which has deep ties to the island, to lead it, something Trudeau has so far resisted.
US officials declined to say whether Biden would pressure Trudeau to accept such a leadership role, a decision the Canadian leader has said should be informed by his country's long history of past security efforts and the lessons it has learned.
"They will continue to talk about ways that we can continue to support, from a humanitarian perspective, the people of Haiti and the Haitian national security forces," Kirby told reporters at the White House.
"Regarding, you know, a multinational force or something like that, I don't want to get ahead of the conversation here," he added.
"If there is a place for that, all of that will have to be resolved directly with the Haitian government and with the UN."
Biden and Trudeau are also expected to address longstanding disputes between their industries, such as those over the dairy and lumber trade.
US tech companies have also urged the Biden administration to oppose Canada's proposed digital services tax, claiming that most of the revenue would come from US companies.
But experts said the meeting will likely take a broader perspective on the trade relationship, focusing on how countries could align their policies to deal with bigger challenges like climate change, economic and security threats from China and the war in Ukraine.
"The competition is not within North America, but outside," Louise Blais, a former Canadian diplomat, said at a virtual roundtable discussion Wednesday hosted by the Americas Society/Council of the Americas and the Woodrow Wilson Center Canada Institute
.
One issue that would arise in this context, Blais said, is that of the critical minerals that power electric vehicle batteries, such as lithium, nickel
, graphite and cobalt.
China dominates the world's processing of these important materials, and US officials have begun talks with their allies about new supply deals.
According to Blais, Canada has large reserves of critical minerals that could be exploited with US investment and aid.
But the Canadian government will want to make it clear to the United States that it is not interested in "mere raw export of those minerals."
Instead, it will advocate for developing integrated, continental supply chains for electric vehicles that bolster the Canadian manufacturing sector.
"This is what I would like to see come out of this meeting: a reaffirmation from the President and the Prime Minister that we are going to develop our industrial policy together and in a comprehensive and integrated way," Blais said.
Some US provisions to provide incentives for the production of high-tech equipment have angered allies in the European Union, South Korea, Britain and other countries, who say they unfairly penalize foreign companies.
As a result of an aggressive lobbying campaign last year, Canadian companies are eligible for some of these benefits, such as tax incentives for electric vehicles that source essential minerals in Canada or Mexico.
But Canadian officials remain concerned that large US subsidies and other requirements for the use of US-made materials tip the scales and lure more manufacturing south.
Instead, some analysts say more attention should be paid to building an integrated US economy, which could better compete with new threats from China and Russia.
"If we don't work together in this new world that we are facing, I believe that both our security and, frankly, our economic well-being are in jeopardy," said Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society, during the round table on Wednesday.
"I think both leaders certainly get it, the governments get it, but sometimes interest group politics gets involved."
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