The US is urging Canada to review its immigration policies and to enforce stricter border protection after data revealed that more than 1,200 terror suspects have been stopped from crossing the northern border since 2020.
According to US Customs and Border Protection, over 1,200 terror suspects from the agency’s Terrorist Screening Dataset, also referred to as the “watchlist” have attempted to gain entry to the US via the Canadian border in the last four years.
A problem that US CBP said didn’t exist before 2020.
The agency is calling on Canada to either change its immigration process or suffer consequences.
The US CBP has seen a 54% spike in watchlist members trying to get from Canada in recent years. The agency stopped 484 listed people last year and has already encountered 281 people so far this year.
A dramatic surge when compared to data from 2017-2019, where the US saw an average of 158 people from the watchlist try and enter annually.
The agency said that listed members are now six times more likely to try and enter from Canada as opposed to the southwest border.
Since 2020, US CBP has had 1,256 encounters with known or suspected terrorists trying to gain entry from Canada.
When this happens and the person is an American citizen, they can be arrested or transferred to another agency.
Non-citizens will be denied entry and could potentially be detained.
However, if authorities don’t have enough grounds to make an arrest, they will send the person back to Canada.
The US CBP’s main concern is that a growing number of watchlist members have been issued Canadian documents, which decreases the likelihood that authorities will be able to properly identify them.
This has led the US border patrol to reconsider its lax relationship with Canadians who want to travel south.
“It would be irresponsible for the U.S. to not take necessary heightened precautions when foreigners attempt to enter the United States,” said Senator Marc Rubio in a statement.
Rubio made the statement in July, urging the US Department of Homeland Security to execute a stronger approach to Canadian identification.
“Irrespective of Canada’s immigration policies, the U.S. should not waive common-sense terrorist screening and vetting for any individual entering the U.S. through other countries,” he added.
Earlier this month the RCMP arrested Muhammad Shahzeb Khan in connection with a terror plot near Roxham Road in Quebec .
Khan had plans to illegally enter the U.S. and attack Jewish people in New York City.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Khan is described as a “Pakistani citizen residing in Canada.”
There have also been dozens of TikTok accounts discovered recently that advertise their ability to illegally smuggle Indian temporary residents and others from Canada into the US with ease, using unofficial points of entry.
Such TikTok accounts have emerged as the number of irregular entries into the U.S. from Canada has grown exponentially.
US CBPl recorded 189,402 migrant encounters at the Canada-U.S. border in 2023, up 73% from the previous years and 597% from 2021 when there were only 27,180 such encounters.
US authorities released a statement condemning the practices being carried out by “transnational criminal organizations” that are “claiming the borders are open and offer the northern border as a way to enter the U.S.”
