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News > World

Canada: Nearly Half Want Undocumented Border Crossers Deported

  • A man is confronted by a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer as he prepares to cross the U.S.-Canada border leading into Hemmingford, Quebec.

    A man is confronted by a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer as he prepares to cross the U.S.-Canada border leading into Hemmingford, Quebec. | Photo: Reuters

Published 20 March 2017
Opinion

A new poll found that Canadians appeared to be just as concerned about undocumented immigration as their U.S. neighbors.

Nearly half of Canadians want to deport people who are crossing into Canada from the United States without documentation, and a similar number disapprove of how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is handling the influx, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll released on Monday.

A significant minority, four out of 10 respondents, said the border crossers could make Canada "less safe," underlining the potential for a “Trump effect” north of the U.S. border.

The increasing flow of hundreds of asylum-seekers of African and Middle Eastern origin from the United States in recent months has become a contentious issue in Canada.

Trudeau has come under pressure over the flow of undocumented migrants. He is questioned about it every time he appears in parliament, from opponents on the left, who want more asylum-seekers to be allowed in, and critics on the right, who say the migrants pose a potential security risk.

Some 48 percent of Canadians said they supported “increasing the deportation of people living in Canada illegally.”

When asked specifically about the recent border crossings from the United States, the same number said Canada should "send these migrants back to the U.S." Another 36 percent said Canada should "accept these migrants" and let them seek refugee status.

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