Eddie Kadri says we’ve seen this movie before — but this time around it’s different, with “so many moving parts.”
The Ontario border city immigration lawyer is referring to the expectation of a large influx in asylum claims and illegal border crossings into Canada from the U.S., if Donald Trump keeps his election promise of mass deportations.
“I think this time you have Trump 2.0, which is going to be quite different,” said Kadri. “He’s coming back with a vengeance. He has vendettas. I think it’s widely known his feelings toward our prime minister.”
Kadri doesn’t think Canadians should expect the president-elect to warm up to the Trudeau administration under Trump’s second go-around.
“He’s made it known he’s putting in some hard line immigration people in his administration. So I think he’s going to do what he says.”
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Trump’s border czar recently labelled the Canada-U.S. border as an “extreme” vulnerability in an interview with an American TV news outlet.
Tom Homan said his plan is to handle the issue immediately after the Republicans take power — and have “tough conversations” with Ottawa.
“The problem with the northern border is a huge national security issue,” Homan told 7News in Watertown, N.Y.”
During his election campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed to seal the U.S. border, as much as possible, and deport millions.
The union representing border guards says Canada would need to hire another 3,000 border guards to deal with the anticipated influx of migrants because of the Trump administration.
“Canada controls our borders,” Chrystia Freeland, deputy prime minister, told CBC News. “Every Canadian has the absolute right to expect that our country chooses who comes here and who doesn’t.”
“I want people to know their borders are safe and secure and they will continue to be, come what may in the world.”
Windsor lawyer Eddie Kadri said he’s expecting a large uptick in asylum seekers into Canada if U.S. president-elect Donald Trump follows through with his promise to deport millions of people. (Vincent Robinet/CBC)
But according to Kadri, who practices immigration law in Windsor, existing laws in Canada need to be changed — moving away from what he believes is incentivizing illegal immigration and human trafficking.
“That’s the problem. If you can basically sneak your way into Canada and stay here for 14 days undetected, you can pursue an asylum claim. And we need to completely eliminate illegal immigration.”
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The fear is, he says, is the U.S. doesn’t care if people leave their country and come to Canada.
“Don’t think for one minute this isn’t part of their calculus … that spares them the cost of removing them and it shifts it over to Canada. So they’re not going to do anything to prevent that.”
With Trump about to take power for a second time in America, Canada’s message should be firm and direct, he says.
“It has to be because we are going to see more, more and more people sneaking in here to take advantage of our laws.”
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Canada’s public opinion on immigration has shifted significantly in the last couple of years, according to Kadri.
He says the country desperately needs a system that’s going to serve our national interests — while keeping our economy going and our population growing.
“I don’t see that happening now. And I’m hopeful that we can turn this around, but it’s going to take some significant work.”