Bill C-12<\/a> \u2013 the Strengthening Canada\u2019s Immigration System and Borders Act \u2013 has the capabilities to severely limit refugee protection for those looking to enter from the U.S., as well as for those who are already in Canada. <\/p>\n\u201cCanada\u2019s taken a number of legal steps to significantly curtail the number of asylum seekers here,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Most irregular crossing zones closed<\/p>\n
Irregular crossing zones like Roxham Road between Quebec and New York, and Emerson, Manitoba, which connects to North Dakota, have largely been closed as a port of entry for a lot of asylum seekers, Sandaluk said. <\/p>\n
But thanks to the STCA, it won\u2019t make a difference if the crossing is regular or irregular because people still won\u2019t be able to come to Canada and claim protection.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that the pressure has come up a little bit, Canada has limited our option to people who are afraid to go back to where they came from,\u201d he said. \u201cThe immigration system is ultimately a human system. And in many cases, the denial of protection in Canada can result in real and profound human tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandaluk said it\u2019s time for the STCA to be revisited, especially since the U.S. has changed their asylum process significantly. <\/p>\n
\u201cCanada\u2019s (system) was always more open, but the gulf between the two systems now has just grown into something that\u2019s very difficult to conceive of,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, the idea of there being any kind of equivalency between our two countries on this issue, just doesn\u2019t really make any sense anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
The deportation targets set by the U.S., along with how that will impact Canada, doesn\u2019t leave asylum seekers with many options, Sandaluk said, and will likely push them to go underground and remain there, or exist in the margins of American society.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people, including children, including people with disabilities, or people who are obviously afraid to go back to where they came from, are all sort of left in the lurch,\u201d he said. \u201cThese large policy forces don\u2019t really recognize the human toll that these decisions are taking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Trump administration begins a massive immigration crackdown, Canada is bracing for the fallout. Immigration lawyer Joel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[712,49,48,44],"class_list":["post-791601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}