The pre -dawn invitation by American border agents for their Canadian counterparts was a shock: a group of nine people, most of them children, are about to enter Canada on foot.
On February 3 at 6:16 am, when the group was monitored, the border between Alberta and Montana was brutally uncovered, covered with snow, dark with a temperature of 17 degrees Fahrenheit.
Pictures of the beloved night vision taken by Canadian border cameras showed two small girls wearing pink winter clothes carrying the hand of a woman while raising it through snow. More children follow in a line. Another adult pulling two bags.
The rapid intervention by the Royal Canadian Police crew, which was found that the group was the result of a newly reinforced border across the vast border between the United States and Canada. In 5525 miles, it is the longest border in the world.
Until recently, the borders have described both countries as “unconfirmed”, a testimony of their close friendship.
But with President Trump's return to the White House, a flash point became the relationship between neighbors.
Even before its opening, Mr. Trump accused Canada of allowing large numbers of immigrants not authorized to enter the United States. It has stopped this movement, which is a major request because it threatens to impose a suspended tariff on Canadian exports to the United States.
After one month rest, Mr. Trump says these definitions will enter into force on Tuesday.
Canada is mobilized. She has published more employees and equipment along the border and tightened the visa rules that critics say they made Canada as a rowing stone to illegally enter the United States.
The number of illegal crossings to the United States of Canada was relatively low to start, and it has now decreased, indicating that Canada's response to Mr. Trump's pressure is working.
But now a new dynamic that appears on the border: asylum seekers north to Canada, where Mr. Trump began his plan to be a comprehensive deportation.
The limits are focused
On any day, the sweet herbal border crossing in Alberta is an organized insult from trucks, trains and civil vehicles.
Societies on both sides are close in every sense of the word. Hold a ball enough with a baseball diamond in Cots, Alberta, and the opportunities you will get in the sweet grass, Mont.
The border authorities share the two countries in a building.
Ryan Harrison, the sergeant of RCMP employees, who heads an integrated border enforcement team, said on the morning of the bitter cold days while driving his car along the border road, which is the groove neighborhood that represents the border for several miles. “These are people who go to dinner with their retirement parties.”
But Mr. Trump's criticism has raised the usual atmosphere on the border.
Mr. Trump was particularly concerned about a leap in the number of unauthorized immigrants who enter the United States during the past three years.
The number of people arrested last year who crossed from Canada to the United States illegally was approximately 24,000. (This diminishes compared to the crossings from Mexico: last year, more than 1.5 million people were arrested on the southern American border, and US government data appear).
Canada has directed 1.3 billion Canadian dollars (900 million dollars) to enhance border security, adding two planes from the Black Hawk helicopter and 60 drones equipped with heat cameras.
He also tightened the requirements of temporary visas that some visitors used to reach Canada legally, but they entered the United States illegally.
The Canadian government says that its recent measures have pushed the number of unauthorized crossings to the United States: about 600 immigrants were intercepted on the border in January, about 900 in January 2024, according to American data.
“Whether it is some allegations about what is going on on the border, or not, or is not reliable or not, I do not have the luxury for not taking it seriously.”
In Washington, he was with senior Canadian ministers planning to meet the Trump administration officials in a last batch to avoid customs tariffs.
Mr. Miller said he was explaining the measures taken by Canada and how they were working. But he also wanted to speak to US officials about the last height of people who arrive in Canada from the United States.
The opposite direction
Canada's focus on the border, against the backdrop of Mr. Trump's local campaign on immigrants, is the reason that the nine people who are walking in Alberta on February 3 have caused warnings: It was unusual to see a large group of this great crossing in the heart of the winter. The presence of young children make more worrying.
Canadian authorities say they are hunting more people who arrive from the United States, but because of the schedule of Canada in the launch of the data, there are no numbers available yet since the opening of Mr. Trump in January. But government newsletters indicate that the numbers rise.
In Alberta, the initial accounts show that up to 20 people have been arrested illegally this year, including children who reach the age of 2.
On the contrary, only seven people were arrested illegally crossing the border in Alberta in 2024.
RCMP told the New York Times that among the nine immigrants who found in Alberta on February 3, including three children between the ages of 13, 10 and 7, they were Venezuelan. They were other children, 7 and 5 years old, from Colombia.
“It is the first time that I have seen Venezuelan here,” said Sergeant Harrison, who worked on the border for two years.
Protection all over the world has been provided with Vinzuele, who flee from the government of President Nicholas Maduro all over the world. Nearly eight million has fled in the past decade, according to the United Nations, an unusual number of the nation and not in the war.
Under the Biden Administration, 600,000 Venezuelan people have already lived in the United States have been granted temporary protection and were allowed to live and work in the country. More survival under smaller programs.
The Trump administration has completed all the protection for Venezuelan, and most programs will end in the coming months.
The removal of the Venezuelan has emerged as a priority in the deportation batch of Mr. Trump. The described Venezueians were sent to the United States facility in Guantenamo Bay, Cuba, while others were deported to Venezuela.
The Venezuelan government recently started arresting political activists only, but also from passers -by in protests, and it is not clear how returning immigrants will treat.
As a result, Canada has a policy of non -deportation of Venezuelan.
A safe country?
Canadian border officials refused to discuss what they did with a group of nine migrants who were held in Alberta, saying they were protecting their privacy.
But a speaker for customs and border protection confirmed that the Canadian authorities had brought them back to the United States, and were transferred to the custody of enforcement and customs enforcement. Their situation is unknown.
Canada and the United States regularly restore asylum seekers who cross the lands of each other, on the basis that the two countries are of the same amount for asylum seekers to submit their claims, and that they must do so in the first of the two countries to reach. Policy is officially known as the Security Country Three Agreement.
But the motivation to deport the Trump administration and changes to asylum policies question whether the United States is still a safe country for asylum seekers, as experts and preachers say, and if Canada should continue to return people to the border.
“This is the last sign that Canada is sending people and families with children to the United States with fully aware that they are at risk of detention and then returning to danger,” said Kitty Nevibandy, the leader of the Amnesty International branch in Canada, referring to the United States.
She added, “The Canadian government should not wait for one minute to withdraw from the third safe country agreement.”
But such a move is likely to encourage more people to resort to Canada, creating new pressure on the already tense immigration system in the country.
“This will certainly lead to an increase in unauthorized border crossings,” said Phil Triafilopoulos, a professor of political science at the University of Toronto.
However, he added, by continuing to restore asylum seekers to the United States, Canada notes that “it will not receive people who have lost their temporary protected position in the United States as it was in the past as it did in the past.”
As it becomes clear from the immigrants who crossed at Alberta, these groups can “can include young children in really terrible conditions, knowing that the fate of these children and their families is not very certain.”
Mr. Miller, Minister of Immigration, insisted that Canada believes that the United States is still a safe country for asylum seekers.
“We need to have a suitable and managed system on the border,” he said. “But this does not mean that we are naive, or that we are not seeing the events that are currently taking place in the United States.”
Hamed Allegiz contributed to the preparation of reports from Washington and Julie Torquett from Mitti, Panama.
