Children of migrants living in U.S. pushing up American asylum-seeker numbers
Posted Nov 15, 2018 2:12 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA — As Canada continues grappling with an influx of irregular asylum seekers, statistics show a growing number of people seeking refugee protection in Canada are Americans.
In 2017, people whose country of origin was identified as the United States made up the third-largest cohort of asylum seekers in Canada.
Statistics for 2018, up to the end of August, show that trend continues at border and inland entry points.
The Immigration Department says most of these people are children born in the United States whose parents are citizens of other countries.
Canadian immigration lawyers say they have seen an increase in the number of migrants who have lived in the U.S. for years, with U.S.-born children, who are now trying to seek asylum in Canada.
They say President Donald Trump’s decision to end temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of migrants living in the U.S., together with the president’s anti-immigration rhetoric, has sparked fears in many migrants they could face persecution or be deported.
The Canadian Press
