Hundreds Of Asylum-Seekers Continue To Stream Into Quebec
A Canadian police officer warns a young man from Yemen that if he illegally crosses into Canada in between checkpoints he will be arrested. If he proves to not be a threat to the public, the officers will help him fill out the asylum request paperwork.
Photo by Kathleen Masterson for VPR
The number of asylum-seekers fleeing the U.S. into Canada is surging this summer, with nearly 800 people illegally walking into Quebec in June alone.
One of the most popular illegal border crossing areas is just west of Lake Champlain, along the rural Roxham Road just outside Champlain, New York. This route began to see an uptick in traffic around the time of the presidential elections, spurred by fear of the Trump administration’s attitude toward refugees. That flow of asylum-seekers has increased fairly steadily in recent months.