By Andy J. Semotiuk, U.S. and Canadian Immigration Lawyer, Pace Law Firm.
A fresh surge of illegal border crossings from Canada into the US could spell trouble for Canada/US diplomatic relations:
So far this year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have had nearly 20,000 encounters with migrants between ports of entry on the northern border.
That’s a 95% increase from last year.
It’s not entirely clear what’s driving this increase, but nearly 60% of those encounters were with Indian nationals.
Shivam and other drivers charge anywhere from $150 to up to $300 per person for the six-hour drive to the Big Apple. There migrants will search for work or head to other cities across America.
Terror Arrests
This news comes on the heels of the arrest of a Pakistani man in Canada who is alleged to have been plotting a terror attack targeting New York City. He entered Canada in June 2023 on a study permit (known in the US as a student visa). That arrest came shortly after a father/son duo were arrested in July 2024 for plotting an attack of their own inside Canada. It was revealed that the father had acquired Canadian citizenship only a couple of months before the arrest.
Study Permit Snafu
As to the reasons for the spike in Indian nationals crossing into the US from Canada, no doubt it is fuelled at least in part by Canada suddenly cutting study permits in half earlier this year and making it harder for international students and their spouses – many of them from India – to become permanent residents.
ESTA Exempt: Only visitors from Canada and Bermuda share this privilege. Canadians should not take it for granted.
US lawmakers were already grumbling about illegal entries from Canada in 2023. This latest news of a fresh surge of illegal crossings plus terror arrests won’t help.
US lawmakers may want to send Canada a message to tighten up their immigration security protocols. One way the US could send that message is by requiring Canadian travellers to the United States to apply for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA; essentially Visa Lite) before arriving by air, land, or sea.
Canadian visitors to the US have long held a coveted visa free status. They are also currently exempt from having to fill out an ESTA application. Only visitors from Canada and Bermuda share this privilege. Canadians should not take it for granted.
Consider: The United States did not require Canadians traveling to the United States by air to have a passport until 2007 and did not require a passport from Canadian land and sea travellers until 2009. There is no reason to believe that the United States couldn’t threaten to require stricter protocols now.
Diplomatic Pressure
It does not matter that, in the instances above, Indian and Pakistani nationals already need a visa to enter the United States. What matters is that the US may want to apply diplomatic pressure – specifically in the immigration sphere – on Canada to do its part in making sure that bad actors don’t enter Canada and then cross into the US.
It would be a sad day if ESTA was imposed on Canada (and, in turn, eTA was imposed on the United States). This would be one step short of requiring full blown visitor visas, which would greatly diminish the reputation of the longest undefended border in the world.
