When Cynthia worked as an immigration officer for the Mexican government, her job was to stop Latin American migrants from crossing through her country into the United States.
Two years ago, it was instead the 25-year-old and her family looking for refuge. Her father, a chief administrator of the federal court in Tabasco state, had been threatened by the Jalisco cartel, which pressed him for intelligence on judges, prosecutors and police that he worked with. The only safe haven they could find was Canada.
“We had no options,” Cynthia, who spoke to the Star on condition her real name not be published, said from a º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøagency serving refugees. “The cartels run Mexico. The other (Latin American) countries are not safe. They have same violence. And there’s no way we could go to the U.S.A. without a visa.”
Her family’s asylum claim is one of the 156,000 cases currently crawling through Canada’s overwhelmed refugee system.
Over the past three years, the number of new Mexican claims has skyrocketed from 3,321 in 2021 to 25,236 last year, prompting the call from opposition MPs to reimpose visas on travellers from the country.
On Thursday, Immigration Minister Marc Miller , except for those who have had a Canadian visas in the past 10 years or currently hold an American visitor visa. The move is meant to reduce the numbers of Mexican arrivals in Canada.
“Any adjustments to Canada’s travel requirements are made pursuant to the integrity and sustainability of our asylum and immigration system,” Miller told a news conference. “The integrity of our immigration system is a top priority for us, and theseÌývisa policy decisions are made in an effort to support travel and people-to-people connections,Ìýwhile maintaining a safe and orderly migration system.”Ìý
Canada, Mexico and the U.S. are not only connected closely economically, but also, increasingly, through migration issues.Ìý
Houses in Tecate, Mexico, are seen through a new section of border wall in 2020, near Tecate, Calif.
Gregory Bull/The Associated Press file photoAmid continuing crowds and challengesÌýat the Mexico-U.S. border, a growing number of migrants from Mexico are heading to Canada. This country isn't the final destination for many, though, especially if they have families in the U.S. Instead, some try their luck through the porousÌýwoods and perilous waterways at theÌýless-guarded Canada-U.S. border.
An increasing share of Mexicans found crossing into U.S.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 191,602 “encounters” with migrants caught entering the U.S. at its northern land border in 2023, up from 135,607 in 2022 and just 37,186 in 2021, when travel restrictions were still in place in Canada and around the globe.
Canadian citizens made up the largest number of those intercepted by U.S. border guardsÌý— 35,597 in 2023; 41,450 in 2022; and 20,848 in 2021.
ButÌýthe share of Mexicans rose significantly, to 12,046 last year from 4,968 in 2022 and just 966 in 2021. And so did migrants arriving from other countries.
“Those Mexicans who have capacity to travel by air to Canada, which is not most, and who are seeking ways into the U.S. do have Canada as an option,” saysÌýGauriÌýSreenivasan, co-executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees.
(After all, those who found themselves having to run for their lives, like Cynthia and her family, may not have wanted to wait the 876 calendar daysÌýfor a visitor visa applicant interview at U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, if theyÌýcould justÌýfly to Canada instead.)
“It’s also totally true,” said Sreenivasan,Ìý“that the southern border became increasingly militarized and violent for refugees and migrants crossing under the Trump administration, whichÌýforced many Mexicans to think of alternate routes.”
Visas for Mexican a shifting target
While the U.S. has always required visas from Mexicans to screen out those who come to seek asylum or likely overstay their visits, Canada has changed its policy back and forth under different governments.Ìý
In 2009, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government slapped Mexico with a visa rule in response to an influx of Mexican refugees who fled gang violence and drug cartels. The requirement was lifted in 2016, after Justin Trudeau’s Liberals came to power.
Visa policy has proven to have a huge impact on Mexico-Canada migration, according to a McGill University study published in the Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies.
The number of Mexican travellers to Canada dropped by 54 per cent or 150,000 the year after the visa requirement was reimposed, while claims from Mexico fell by 87 per cent to 1,200 fromÌý9,500. In 2016, once the visa requirement was lifted, the number of claims rose again, but to levels similar to those observed in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
In 2023, of the 5,318 claims heard by Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board, 54.4 per cent of the cases were accepted and granted protection. Another 560 cases were abandoned after claimants missed the deadline to submit their claim forms; 1,240 were withdrawn.
“Imposing a visa just discourages people from engaging with the system because it’s a hassle,” says the study’s co-author Ian Van Haren, who worked as an immigration officer overseas for seven years and is pursuing a doctoral degree at McGill. “There’s a higher refusal rate because they’re assessed by officers who are trained to try and say no to certain people.”
While it’s unclear whether the rapid surge of Mexican refugee claims in Canada is related to pent-up demand for migration after the border reopeningÌý— and if the trend would have subsided — Van Haren said the fact that these claims continue to to be accepted demonstrates that there are reasonable grounds for some Mexicans to seek protection.
“We don’t need that becoming part of the political debate in the U.S. as they go into a politically charged season right now,” said Miller. “The numbers have jumped in the last year, and it’s people that are sort of gaming the system by coming into Canada because they couldn’t get into the U.S. and then transiting into America.
“It’s not a large number, but ... they are ones that we need to manage as part of our relationship with the U.S.”Ìý
While the Mexican government has the sovereign rights to take retaliatory measures, Miller said he’s not expecting trade repercussions as a result. It’s widely understood Mexico is highly unlikely to slap visas against Canadians because of the tourism revenues they bring.Ìý
‘We need to see North America as a system’
Carleton University professor Laura Macdonald, who specializes in Latin American and North American politics, says the Canadian visa was lifted in 2016 on the condition of keeping the Mexican asylum claims on track, and officials from both countries have worked closely over the years to keep the numbers under control.
Miller was unclear about the criteria used to the restoration of the visa requirement but said officials did consider the data on claims that were refused, abandoned and withdrawn.
“They’re trying to be creative about finding ways to deal with the issue of smugglers and unscrupulous individuals or groups, like trying to convince Mexicans that they can get asylum in Canada in circumstances that don’t reallyÌýwarrant it,” says Macdonald from Mexico, where she’s attending a conference on Canada-Mexico relations.
“It takes time to circulate these messages. There’s a massive problem in Mexico with law and order, and organized crime. So it’s very difficult to do that.
“We do need to see North America as a system.ÌýIf you reduce immigration in one place like the U.S.-Mexico border, people will find other ways to try to get into either Canada or the United States.”
Even before Mexicans were required to get a visa to come here, Loly Rico, co-founder of Toronto’s FCJ Refugee Centre, said they already needed an electronic travel authorization to board a flight to Canada, and Canadian border officials, along with airline staff, could deny boarding of suspected asylum seekers as a precaution.
According to the Immigration Department, 5,637 Mexicans were refused the travel authorization in 2017, the full year the visa requirement was removed, and the refusal rate was two per cent. In 2022, 23,917 Mexicans were refused the authorization, with the rejection rate at 6.5 per cent. It went down to five per cent last year.
Rico says travel restrictions including visas won’t stop desperate people from coming but they would create opportunity for human smugglers to take advantage of migrants and put their lives further at risk.
Migrant tragedies in recent years
There have been some high-profile deaths in the last couple of years of migrants trying to cross into the U.S. from Canada, including an Indian family of four at the Manitoba border, eight people from India and Romania drowning in the St. Lawrence River,ÌýaÌýHaitian man trying to walk through the woods in the winter from Quebec and a Mexican trying to enter Vermont.Ìý
Just before Christmas, the body of a 33-year-old pregnant woman from Mexico was found in the Great Chazy River in Champlain, N.Y., trying to reunite with her husband in the U.S. She, too, allegedly made the journey with help of smugglers.
“The imposition of visas is going to create more issues,” Rico cautions.
The Canada Border Services Agency says it hasÌý171 active human smuggling cases under investigation.
Cynthia, whose family is scheduled for a refugee hearing in April, says life has been tough for her father and mother, a medical doctor, as both can only find work as cleaners in Toronto. Her older brother and husband both work in construction.
“I didn’t feel good working as an immigration officer in Mexico. I’m proud of what I’m doing now,” says Cynthia, who works at the FCJ Refugee Centre to help other arriving asylum seekers. “We had a very good life in Mexico and we would rather be in Mexico. But Mexico will never be safe again unless the government can stop the cartels.”
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