On Friday, the vice president and Justin Trudeau of Canada inked a deal that would give both countries the authority to refuse entry to those requesting asylum at unofficial crossing points along their shared border.

Trudeau announced that beginning early Saturday morning, those who enter Canada through unrecognized ports of entry will be immediately deported back to the United States. The new deal would also let the U.S. to deport asylum seekers who enter the northern border at unapproved crossing points back to Canada, according to the language of a regulation that will be released in the Federal Register.

Despite the objections of immigration organizations and some Democrats, the agreement is the latest step the Biden administration has taken to discourage people from crossing the border illegally in order to request asylum.

According to a statement from Alejandro Mayorkas, minister of homeland security, "today's coordinated efforts with the Government of Canada will maintain the credibility of the procedure for asylum, deter risky crossing between points of entry, and promote legitimate possibilities for migration." Since many years ago, the Safe Third Party Agreement has allowed the United States and Canada to turn away immigrants who come through valid ports of entry. However, traffic at illegal crossings has sharply increased in Canada.

The number of illegal immigrants who entered Quebec in 2017 was over 39,000, and many of them travelled along Roxham Road, a little road in northern. As a result, Canadian officials asked for tougher rules.
Roxham Road couldn't just be shut down, she said. Alternative crossing points would have been sought after. This is the basis for our decision to revise the Safe Third Country Agreement, "Trudeau said during the joint press conference.

As part of the agreement, Canada has agreed to provide "access to legal channels" for an additional 15,000 migrants from South America and the Caribbean each year, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Trudeau said, "We are going to raise the number of asylum seekers from the western region that we take in order to sign up for preventing these irregular crossings," through a translation, in French. However, immigrant rights advocates denounced the pact for limiting the travel of asylum seekers.

The head of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, Elora Mukherjee, called the circumstance "and development for asylum seekers seeking rights and fundamental human decency."
"Asylum seekers leave difficult situations to build better futures for themselves and their families—they face exhausting travels across thousands of miles in search of safety and comfort," claims Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition.