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Canada introduced on Thursday that it might require visas for Mexican nationals to enter the nation, a transfer that comes amid a surge in asylum requests from Mexicans arriving in Canada.
The rule follows months of discussions between the 2 nations over the rise within the variety of Mexicans coming into Canada, together with repeated makes an attempt by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to handle the difficulty with Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Some provincial officers say a surge of asylum seekers has strained their assets and their capability to offer social providers.
“We wanted to offer Mexico, due to our friendship, the possibility to rectify issues,” Marc Miller, Canada’s immigration minister, mentioned at a information convention.
“This clearly was not finished,” he added, “so we needed to take a choice.”
The visa mandate, which can go into impact Thursday night time, had been lifted by Mr. Trudeau in 2016 to spice up tourism and as an indication of the shut ties between the 2 nations.
Since then the variety of Mexican asylum claims has soared, to roughly 24,000 final 12 months from 260 eight years in the past. About 17 p.c of all Canadian asylum claims final 12 months have been filed by Mexican nationals.
Most asylum claims from Mexico are rejected, withdrawn or deserted, Mr. Miller mentioned, clogging up an immigration system already dealing with difficulties making an attempt to deal with a mounting backlog of refugee claims. “It has ripple results,” he mentioned.
For some Mexicans who can afford airplane tickets, flying to Canada has grow to be an alternate path to the US, permitting them to keep away from the smugglers who management the paths to the U.S. southern border.
U.S. immigration officers have recorded a big enhance within the variety of migrants, together with Mexicans, crossing into the US from Canada, although nowhere close to the large numbers on the southern border.
“However they’re vital,” Mr. Miller mentioned. “And that’s one thing now we have to handle as a companion with the U.S.”
Immigration has grow to be a significant concern in the US forward of the November election, and the Biden administration has made the tightening of the nation’s borders a prime political precedence.
President Biden and Donald J. Trump, who is nearly sure to be his Republican rival for the White Home, have been each scheduled to look on Thursday in South Texas to debate migration.
Mr. López Obrador informed reporters on Thursday that his authorities revered Canada’s resolution, however mentioned that Canada may have sought “different options,” with out providing specifics.
He additionally issued a “small, respectful, fraternal reproach” to Mr. Trudeau, although he mentioned that his authorities’s response could be “to behave with prudence, with serenity.”
Not all Mexicans will likely be required to have a visa to journey to Canada. The rule excludes Mexicans who’ve had a Canadian visa throughout the previous 10 years, or in the event that they at present have a short lived U.S. visa. Vacationers on this class want an digital journey authorization, which is legitimate for as much as 5 years.
Canada’s visa resolution is the most recent step within the nation’s effort to handle asylum claims produced from common ports of entry, like airports, and from unofficial border crossings.
Canadian officers in January additionally positioned restrictions on overseas college students, doubling the financial savings threshold new candidates will need to have to qualify for a examine allow, after a surge raised issues about pressures on housing.
After an settlement with the US, Canada final 12 months closed a well-liked land border crossing between New York State and Quebec, known as Roxham Street, following a spike in migrants coming into Canada there.
Some provincial leaders, together with François Legault, the premier of Quebec, have criticized the federal authorities’s response and say it wants to offer extra monetary assist to defray the prices of absorbing hundreds of migrants.
About half of Canada’s 290,000 asylum seekers are in Quebec, the province’s immigration minister has mentioned, and Quebec is asking the federal government for 1 billion Canadian {dollars} in help.
Emiliano Rodríguez Mega contributed reporting from Mexico Metropolis.
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