U.S. and Canada Reach an Agreement on Diverting Asylum Seekers
"The Situation at the U.S.-Mexico Border Can't Be 'Solved' Without Acknowledging Its Origins"
---------- Related: 60 false claims in 2 hours: Trump’s CPAC speech was by far his most-dishonest single event as president Trump made 111 false claims in all last week, the ninth-worst week of his presidency so far. By Daniel Dale, Washington Bureau Chief Wed., March 6, 2019 Trump: "But if we had a wall, we wouldn't have to apprehend. People wouldn't come into our country. Drugs wouldn't come into our country. The human trafficking is incredible, the number of people brought into our country." Question: "Sex -- you have girls -- sex trafficking." Trump: "And they don't come through the points of entry. They come through in the middle of the desert where you have open space. So, I think that really, it's a very dangerous thing for people to be voting against border security -- for anybody, including Republicans." P - Source: Interview with Fox News's Sean Hannity in fact: Experts say many human trafficking victims do enter the U.S. through legal ports of entry, on visas, after being deceived into thinking they are coming to a good job or loving relationship in the U.S. "It is far easier to lure victims with false promises of a better life in the United States," said Martina Vandenberg, president of the Human Trafficking Legal Center. "Why kidnap someone when you can convince them to travel willingly?" FactCheck.org reported: "The United Nations' International Organization on Migration has found that 'nearly 80% of international human trafficking journeys cross through official border points, such as airports and land border control points,' based on 10 years' worth of cases on which the IOM has assisted."https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=171367441
And - The Situation at the U.S.-Mexico Border Can't Be 'Solved' Without Acknowledging Its Origins [...]Insert: Fact-checking claim about Trump administration changes to the immigration system "Donald Trump’s Central America strategy is both cruel and incompetent "Inside Trump’s Disastrous ‘Secret’ Drug War Plans for Central America"" [...]There’s a reason why the U.S. government has failed for so many years to “control” the border: none of these policies have addressed the real reasons for migration itself. In migration studies, these are known as “push” and “pull” factors, the causes that drive migrants from one country to another. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=170726473
And - NAFTA, 20 Years Later: Do the Benefits Outweigh the Costs? [...] A Closer Look at Job Loss How much of these job losses can be attributed to the impact of NAFTA? Wharton management professor Mauro Guillen has a very different view, suggesting that without NAFTA, many jobs that were lost over this period would probably have gone to China or elsewhere. “Perhaps NAFTA accelerated the process, but it did not make a huge difference. At the same time, a lot of jobs were created in the U.S. that wouldn’t be there without the Mexico trade. I’m not just talking about Texas or California or Arizona…. Many of the products made in Mexico are designed in the United States. So there are a lot of jobs created here.” P - Walter Kemmsies, chief economist at Moffatt Nichol, an international infrastructure consultancy, notes that close to 40% of what the U.S. imports from Mexico is derived from U.S. sources. “This is the symbol of the success of NAFTA.” Twenty years ago, he estimates, that percentage was less than 5%. [...]“Now think of where Mexico would be today without NAFTA,” Guillen adds. “Today, Mexican migration to the U.S. has come to a halt. There are Central Americans coming to the U.S. – but virtually no Mexicans. That’s because Mexico is doing well. So just imagine, without NAFTA and with Mexico not doing that well, we would have had the additional problem of an unstable Mexico with lots of people wanting to come to the United States.” Behind NAFTA’s Success - https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=170952283
The deal, reached just before President Biden arrived in Canada for an official visit, allows both countries to reduce a surge in migration.
Although President Biden’s first trip to Canada has been long delayed, he has a much warmer relationship with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau than did his predecessor, President Donald J. Trump. Sarah Silbiger for The New York Times
By Michael D. Shear and Ian Austen March 23, 2023Updated 8:27 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — The United States and Canada have reached an agreement that will allow both countries to divert asylum seekers from their borders at a time when migration has surged across the hemisphere, a U.S. official familiar with the agreement said Thursday.
The deal, which is set to be announced Friday by President Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after the two leaders meet in Ottawa, will allow Canada to turn back immigrants at Roxham Road, a popular unofficial crossing point from New York .. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/02/world/canada/canada-migrants-immigration.html .. for migrants seeking asylum in Canada.
In exchange, Canada has agreed to provide a new, legal refugee program for 15,000 migrants who are fleeing violence, persecution and economic devastation in South and Central America, the official said, lessening the pressure of illegal crossings into the United States from Mexico.
Mr. Biden arrived in Ottawa on Thursday evening for a 24-hour visit meant to underscore the unity of purpose between the United States and Canada after four years of frosty and even openly hostile exchanges between Mr. Trudeau and former President Donald J. Trump.
But the visit — long delayed from its usual place as an American president’s first trip abroad after taking office — will also expose some difficult issues between the two countries, including the longstanding debate over how to govern the movement of people across the border between them.
The agreement removes one of the relatively few disputes between Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Biden. The two leaders are also expected to discuss differences over how to stabilize Haiti, and the global race to develop critical minerals needed to make batteries and other technology.
But the accord is likely to further anger advocates for refugees, who are already frustrated with Mr. Biden’s decision to crack down on asylum seekers at the southern border with Mexico.
[Insert: See related above.]
Migrants crossing from the United States into Canada on Roxham Road, where such illegal crossings have surged in recent years. José A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times
Mr. Trudeau’s government has been pushing for months to expand a 2004 migration treaty with the United States that limits how many asylum seekers Canada can turn away at its border and send back to the United States.
The treaty only allows Canada to turn back a migrant — for example, someone fleeing violence in El Salvador — if the person crosses at an official port of entry between the two countries. Crossings at unofficial points of entry like Roxham Road have surged in the past several years, putting pressure on Mr. Trudeau to limit them.
----- More on U.S. Immigration[links inside]
* Navigating Bureaucracy: New rules introduced by the Biden administration have brought down the number of border crossings. But critics say that the policies are far from the “fair, orderly and humane” system the president promised.
* Family Detentions: President Biden is said to be considering reviving the practice of detaining migrant families who illegally cross the border — the same policy he shut down over the past two years.
* Child Labor: The Biden administration announced a crackdown on the labor exploitation of migrant children and members of Congress began pressing for stricter laws, after a Times investigation showed the explosive growth of migrant child labor throughout the United States.
* Leaving the U.S.: Crowded scenes at the border do not necessarily translate into an increase in the undocumented population. Many other immigrants have been returning to their countries of origin. -----
(Asylum seekers who come from other countries by plane or by ship are not covered by the agreement regardless of where they enter. They are comparatively few in number and, in many cases, are detained until their hearings.)
Until recently, officials in the United States have been resisting a change in the treaty. But members of governments on both sides of the border said conversations have been underway in an attempt to resolve the issue ahead of the daylong summit.
For Mr. Biden, the deal could help lessen the record number of migrants who have surged toward the southern U.S. border through Mexico, driven by political instability across the region and economic changes that have increased poverty.
The idea is that the agreement would divert up to 15,000 migrants each year from that dangerous trek, leaving the Biden administration with fewer migrants to turn away.
At the northern U.S. border, the agreement will allow Canada to turn back to the United States migrants who have decided to try their luck with the Canadian asylum system rather than to win protection in the United States.
Mr. Trudeau’s government has welcomed refugees from Syria and elsewhere, and has pledged to increase immigration, earning Canada a reputation as being more open to migrants than many other Western nations. But over the past year, as migration has swelled at Canada’s border, there are signs that the country’s famed hospitality toward migrants may be fraying.
Roxham Road runs through the small town of Perry Mills, in upstate New York. José A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times
On Friday, Mr. Biden will meet with Mr. Trudeau and deliver an address to the Canadian Parliament, a tradition that was embraced by former Presidents Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
[One recent a notable absentee. Yet another positive tradition broken by the dick.]
Top American officials in Canada and Washington stressed the personal chemistry between the current leaders. One official, speaking to reporters this week, said the prime minister and president have a “Justin and Joe” relationship that includes each of them having the other “on speed dial” for frequent consultations.
That stems in part from Mr. Biden’s longstanding history with Mr. Trudeau’s family. As a young senator in the early 1970s, Mr. Biden met Mr. Trudeau’s father, Pierre Trudeau, who was then the country’s prime minister. In a speech six years ago, Mr. Biden praised Pierre Trudeau as a “decent and honorable” man who had raised a successful son.
Officials said Mr. Biden would use the speech to highlight the years of cooperation between the two countries on the war in Ukraine, climate change, confronting China and the global economy. They said he would also talk about the mutual benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act and the Chips Act, which provide incentives to North American companies for the production of silicon chips, car batteries and steel.
“In the first year of this administration, we focused on rebuilding that bilateral relationship,” John F. Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said. “This visit is about taking stock of what we’ve done, where we are, and what we need to prioritize for the future.”
The spirit of cooperation stands in stark contrast to the tension during Mr. Trump’s administration. In 2018, after attending a Group of 7 summit meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec, Mr. Trump angrily withheld his signature from the leaders’ statement and blasted Mr. Trudeau as “very dishonest and weak.” The relationship between the two men never improved.
Officials on both sides expect far more harmonious meetings during the current visit, which will conclude with a gala dinner at the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum.
But the agenda includes some issues on which the two countries disagree.
Mr. Biden and Mr. Trudeau are also expected to discuss efforts to help stabilize Haiti after devastating natural disasters and political violence and unrest. The United States has said it believes an international security force is needed, and has urged Canada — which has deep ties to the island — to lead it, something Mr. Trudeau has so far resisted.
American officials declined to say whether Mr. Biden would pressure Mr. Trudeau to accept such a leading role, a decision the Canadian leader has said must be informed by his country’s long history in previous security efforts and the lessons it has learned.
“They will continue to talk about ways we can continue to support, from a humanitarian assistance perspective, the people of Haiti and Haitian national security forces,” Mr. Kirby told reporters at the White House.
“As for, you know, a multinational force or anything like that, I don’t want to get ahead of the conversation here,” he added. “If there’s a place for that, that’s all going to have to be worked out directly with the Haitian government and with the U.N.”
Mr. Biden and Mr. Trudeau are also expected to touch on longstanding disputes between their industries, such as those over the dairy and timber trade. U.S. technology companies have also urged the Biden administration to push back against a proposed digital services tax in Canada, saying that the bulk of revenues would be collected from American firms.
But experts said the meeting would likely take a wider lens on the trade relationship, focusing on how the countries could align their policies to take on larger challenges like climate change, economic and security threats from China, and the war in Ukraine.
“The competition is not within North America, it is without,” Louise Blais, a former Canadian diplomat, said in a virtual panel discussion Wednesday hosted by the Americas Society/Council of the Americas and the Woodrow Wilson Center Canada Institute.
One issue that would be raised in this context, Ms. Blais said, is that of the critical minerals that power electric vehicle batteries, like lithium, nickel, graphite and cobalt. China dominates the global processing of these important materials, and U.S. officials have begun holding talks .. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/10/us/politics/biden-von-der-leyen-ukraine-russia-ev.html .. with allies about new sourcing arrangements.
Canada has large reserves of critical minerals that could be developed with U.S. investment and assistance, Ms. Blais said. But the Canadian government will want to make clear to the United States that it is not interested in “just a raw export of those minerals.” Instead, it would argue for developing integrated, continental supply chains for electric vehicles that will reinforce the Canadian manufacturing sector.
“This is what I’d love to see coming out of this meeting, a reaffirmation on the part of the president and the prime minister that we’re going to be developing our industrial policy together and in a comprehensive, integrated way,” Ms. Blais said.
Some U.S. provisions to offer incentives for the production of high-tech equipment have rankled allies in the European Union, South Korea, Britain and elsewhere who say they unfairly penalize foreign companies.
As a result of an aggressive lobbying push last year, Canadian companies qualify for some of these benefits, such as tax incentives for electric vehicles that source critical minerals from Canada or Mexico. But Canadian officials remain concerned about the potential for large U.S. subsidies and other requirements for using American-made materials to tilt the playing field and draw more manufacturing south.
Instead, some analysts say more focus should be on constructing an integrated North American economy, which could better compete with new threats from China and Russia.
“If we’re not working together in this new world that we face, I think both of our securities and frankly economic well-being is at risk,” Eric Farnsworth, the vice president of the Council of the Americas and the Americas Society, said during the panel discussion Wednesday. “I think both leaders certainly get that, the governments get it, but sometimes interest group politics intervene.”
Ana Swanson contributed reporting.
Michael D. Shear is a veteran White House correspondent and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who was a member of team that won the Public Service Medal for Covid coverage in 2020. He is the co-author of “Border Wars: Inside Trump's Assault on Immigration.” @shearm
A native of Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austen was educated in Toronto and currently lives in Ottawa. He has reported for The Times about Canada for more than a decade. @ianrausten
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