The White House Proposes Soldiers at the U.S.-Canada Border

On March 26, 2020, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he is considering sending soldiers to the Canada-U.S. border, seemingly to keep irregular migrants from spreading COVID-19.  The goal is to have troops placed at the border to boost security. In response, the Canadian federal government has utterly objected to this proposal, as it deems it unnecessary. 

Already, the U.S. and Canada have jointly agreed to restrict non-essential travel between the borders, which includes irregular migrants passing through New York State to file a refugee claim at the border in Quebec.   The 30-day agreement includes immediately returning any “illegal migrants” to the country from which they arrived, or to their countries of origin if that isn't possible, rather than holding them at facilities in the U.S .

So far, there have been no cases of the virus in Canada relating to irregular migrants crossing the border.  However, the COVID-19 pandemic has been spreading at a rapid rate across the world and countries are inevitably taking the necessary measures to flatten the curve.

We are watching closely to see how this situation pans out; however, migrants who are planning to start a new life in Canada will have to temporarily halt such plans.