Donald Trump holds up newly signed executive order. (Source: Twitter)
The first week of the Trump administration has been full of executive orders, new appointments, and the change of many official government policies. One of the main focuses of all of these decisions has been the issue of immigration, one of Trump’s main campaign promises he wanted to tackle. These new policies and practices will not only have a major impact domestically in the United States but will have major consequences and impact on their northern neighbor.
Canada is particularly vulnerable to changing U.S. policy, Zia Waseer an immigration Lawyer from London Ontario says.
“These US restrictive measures will push refugees to some other countries. And if someone is already in Mexico or in the US, Canada is the next destination for them.”
“We will not have any information that how many new people are already here in Canada illegally, who cross the border illegally, which will create more pressure towards our economy, housing, transportation, medical.” says Waseer
The threat and implementation of these orders is could potentially create an even larger backlog in claims.
Trump has signed multiple orders including; an order allowing multiple federal agencies to now arrest illegal immigrants, the deployment of “Homeland Security Task Forces” (HSTF) to all states nationwide, and most controversially ending birthright citizenship in the country, something that has been enshrined in the U.S. constitution for years and is facing multiple legal challenges from different levels of government.
“If we are not prepared, if we don’t come up with a with a solution right away, I think that there will be a problem for for us towards our economy, towards our resources.” added Waseer.
These severe acts are tarnishing what people think of the U.S.’s reputation, and pushes more people towards Canada which is viewed internationally to be very open and accepting in terms of immigration.
Canada has recently reduced it’s own immigration targets but Waseer thinks this also creates a vacuum that Canada could fill.
“Now I would say that Canada has opportunity to reinforce their leadership, to think about it, maintain our reputation, strengthen our immigration policies and and go for the more international collaboration.” says Waseer
Canada will not have much time to make a decision, and with a looming election in the coming months, it’s unclear which direction the government will choose.
