{"id":87037,"date":"2023-03-14T09:43:02","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T13:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&#038;p=87037"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:37:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:37:07","slug":"usa-canada-border-politics","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/usa-canada-border-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"The U.S. is playing border politics again \u2014 this time with Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-max  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n        \n                    \n                    \n            \n    <div class=\"cu-wideimage relative flex items-center justify-center mx-auto px-8 overflow-hidden md:px-16 rounded-xl not-prose  my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 bg-opacity-50 bg-cover bg-cu-black-50 pt-24 pb-32 md:pt-28 md:pb-44 lg:pt-36 lg:pb-60 xl:pt-48 xl:pb-72\" style=\"background-image: url(https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/162\/conversation-ryan-zinke-1200x900-1.jpg); background-position: 50% 50%;\">\n\n                    <div class=\"absolute top-0 w-full h-screen\" style=\"background-color:rgba(0,0,0,0.600);\"><\/div>\n        \n        <div class=\"relative z-[2] max-w-4xl w-full flex flex-col items-center gap-2 cu-wideimage-image cu-zero-first-last\">\n            <header class=\"mx-auto mb-6 text-center text-white cu-pageheader cu-component-updated cu-pageheader--center md:mb-12\">\n\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold mb-2 text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] cu-pageheader--center text-center mx-auto after:left-px\">\n                        The U.S. is playing border politics again \u2014 this time with Canada\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                            <\/header>\n        <\/div>\n\n                    <svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"absolute bottom-0 w-full z-[1]\" fill=\"none\" viewbox=\"0 0 1280 312\">\n                <path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M26.412 315.608c-.602-.268-6.655-2.412-13.524-4.769a1943.84 1943.84 0 0 1-14.682-5.144l-2.276-.858v-5.358c0-4.876.086-5.358.773-5.09 1.674.643 21.38 5.84 34.646 9.109 14.682 3.59 28.935 6.858 45.936 10.449l9.874 2.089H57.322c-16.4 0-30.31-.16-30.91-.428ZM460.019 315.233c42.974-10.074 75.602-19.88 132.443-39.867 76.16-26.791 152.063-57.709 222.385-90.663 16.7-7.823 21.336-10.074 44.262-21.273 85.004-41.688 134.719-64.193 195.291-88.413 66.55-26.577 145.2-53.584 194.27-66.765C1258.5 5.626 1281.34 0 1282.24 0c.17 0 .34 27.596.34 61.3v61.299l-2.23.375c-84.7 13.718-165.93 35.955-310.736 84.931-46.494 15.753-65.427 22.076-96.166 32.15-9.102 3-24.814 8.198-34.989 11.574-107.543 35.954-153.008 50.422-196.626 62.639l-6.74 1.876-89.126-.054c-78.135-.054-88.782-.161-85.948-.857ZM729.628 312.875c33.229-10.985 69.248-23.523 127.506-44.207 118.705-42.223 164.596-57.709 217.446-73.302 2.62-.75 8.29-2.465 12.67-3.751 56.19-16.772 126.94-33.597 184.17-43.671 5.07-.91 9.66-1.768 10.22-1.875l.94-.161v170.236l-281.28-.054H719.968l9.66-3.215ZM246.864 313.411c-65.041-2.251-143.047-12.11-208.432-26.256-18.375-3.965-41.73-9.538-42.202-10.074-.171-.214-.257-21.38-.214-47.046l.129-46.618 6.654 3.697c57.313 32.043 118.491 56.531 197.699 79.143 40.313 11.521 83.459 18.058 138.669 21.059 15.584.857 65.685.857 81.14 0 33.744-1.876 61.306-4.93 88.396-9.806 6.396-1.126 11.634-1.983 11.722-1.929.255.375-20.48 7.769-30.999 11.038-28.592 8.948-59.288 15.646-91.873 20.147-26.36 3.59-50.015 5.627-78.35 6.698-15.584.59-55.209.59-72.339-.053Z\"><\/path>\n                <path fill=\"#fff\" d=\"M-3.066 295.067 32.06 304.1v9.033H-3.066v-18.066Z\"><\/path>\n            <\/svg>\n            <\/div>\n\n    \n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<p>This article is <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/the-u-s-is-playing-border-politics-again-this-time-with-canada-201142\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">republished<\/a> from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. All photos provided by <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">The Conversation<\/a> from various sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;\" allowtransparency=\"\" allow=\"clipboard-read; clipboard-write\" src=\"https:\/\/narrations.ad-auris.com\/widget\/the-conversation-canada\/the-u-s--is-playing-border-politics-again-\u2014-this-time-with-canada\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Concern is reportedly growing among some American legislators about migrants crossing into the United States from Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One recent headline intoned: &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/world\/illegal-migration-canada-u-s-border-1.6763492\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">U.S. Republicans are now warning: Migration from Canada is a problem<\/a>&#8221; as some lawmakers have likened the apparent trend to &#8220;being assaulted.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since Republican <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/gop-governors-send-migrants-to-democratic-states-large-numbers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">governors started to send migrants arriving in their states to Democrat jurisdictions<\/a> in the summer of 2022, the question of border control has been a major subject of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/fact-tank\/2023\/01\/13\/monthly-encounters-with-migrants-at-u-s-mexico-border-remain-near-record-highs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">public policy discussions<\/a> in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Canada, this topic gained traction when it was revealed that some American <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2023\/02\/08\/canada-urgency-of-border-policy-revamp-00081938\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">public officials have been facilitating the movement of people to the Canadian border<\/a>, particularly to the unofficial crossing at Roxham Road in Qu\u00e9bec.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image align-center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/514534\/original\/file-20230309-305-m81h0x.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip\" alt=\"A young Black girl in a snowsuit carrying her belongings stares at the camera.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">Asylum-seekers from Congo cross the border at Roxham Road into Qu\u00e9bec in February 2023 in Champlain, N.Y.<\/span><br>\n<span class=\"attribution\"><span class=\"source\">THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Ryan Remiorz<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/montreal.citynews.ca\/2023\/01\/12\/survey-roxham-road-closed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Public opinion polls<\/a>, and heated rhetoric, are politicizing an issue that shouldn&#8217;t be political at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the rapid growth in the number of borders <a href=\"https:\/\/ubique.americangeo.org\/map-of-the-week\/map-of-the-week-the-short-history-of-international-borders\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in the 19th century<\/a> and the securitization and militarization of those borders in recent years, they&#8217;ve become a focal point in conversations about power and sovereignty. But they aren&#8217;t the real issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Borders simply offer an opportunity to score political points. In this case, it&#8217;s at the expense of migrants who have the right, under international law, to seek refuge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"old-anti-migrant-playbook\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Old anti-migrant playbook<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>By turning their attention to the Canada-U.S. border while also continuing to flag concerns about migration across the southern border with Mexico, American lawmakers are creating a perception that migration is a problem and polls show it&#8217;s reverberating domestically in Canada as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They&#8217;re also turning to a very old playbook in which migration across all borders is used to amplify the idea of migration as a threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 1880s, <a href=\"https:\/\/pier21.ca\/research\/immigration-history\/the-chinese-immigration-act-1885\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Canadian<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.history.com\/topics\/immigration\/chinese-exclusion-act-1882\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">and American governments employed various measures<\/a> to prevent both the continued migration of Chinese labourers to their shores as well as their permanent settlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Politicians had looked across the border (and across the Pacific to Australia) to see what kinds of measures were being envisioned elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As historian Erika Lee has shown in her 2002 article in the <em>Journal of American History<\/em>, &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2307\/2700784\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Enforcing the Borders: Chinese Exclusion along the U.S. Borders with Canada and Mexico, 1882-1924<\/a>,&#8221; this resulted in policymakers in the United States, in particular, using their ostensible concern about immigration issues as a way to deal with the so-called &#8220;Chinese problem.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During that time period, the borders with both Canada and Mexico were seen as problematic by the United States, and migrants became the scapegoat in debates about American economic and social well-being. Crucially, this rhetoric was often racialized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, Chinese migrants were depicted in editorials and <a href=\"https:\/\/thomasnastcartoons.com\/tag\/19th-century\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">editorial cartoons<\/a> that featured gross distortions of their physical features and cultural practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By contrast, in the early 1900s, migrants from Syria, Greece, Hungary, Russia, France, Belgium and Spain were also known to have migrated to Canada first before making their way to the United States. This led to familiar complaints about Canada as a &#8220;back door&#8221; for entry to the United States, but in this case, the migrants themselves weren&#8217;t targeted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But as Lee documented, they were often seen as the victims of &#8220;unscrupulous agents.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just as in the past, exploiting differences between migrants (in this case in terms of how they&#8217;re seeking refuge) creates greater inequalities and problems, and doesn&#8217;t attend to the core needs of migrants or potential host societies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"larger-systemic-problems\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Larger systemic problems<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The borders of the world are inextricably linked. What&#8217;s happening at the Canada-U.S. border is the result of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/figures-at-a-glance.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">growing numbers<\/a> of dispossessed and displaced migrants globally and the failure of governments to grasp the fact that migrants themselves are not the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, when people arrive in Canada uninvited \u2014 in other words, when they have not been selected in advance as part of a formal resettlement process \u2014 there is often visceral opposition. The presence of migrants at the border is seen as scary, in part because of the way this situation is presented by our neighbour to the south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given the history of the U.S.-Mexico border, and the highly militarized response to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.southernborder.org\/border_lens_border_militarization\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">migrants arriving there<\/a>, it&#8217;s not really a surprise that we&#8217;re now seeing similar anti-migrant rhetoric about the Canada-U.S. boundary too \u2014 and seeing lawmakers use words like &#8220;assault&#8221; to describe cross-border migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image align-center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/514543\/original\/file-20230309-20-afgfnh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip\" alt=\"A heavily armed Border Patrol agent is seen through a chain link fence strewn with barbed wire.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><span class=\"caption\">A U.S. Border Patrol agent stands on the American side of the U.S.-Mexico border in November 2018.<\/span><br>\n<span class=\"attribution\"><span class=\"source\">(AP Photo\/Marco Ugarte)<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>But border arrivals, whether on land or at sea, have often been met with considerable outcry. This was the case with migrants who arrived by boat in Canada <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-1987-08-12-mn-451-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in 1987<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-1999-nov-07-mn-30895-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">and 1999<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The exception was perhaps in 2017, when Donald Trump&#8217;s administration inspired generosity in Canadian politicians, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau famously tweeting <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JustinTrudeau\/status\/825438460265762816\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#WelcomeToCanada<\/a> in response to the announcement of Trump&#8217;s so-called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/news\/immigrants-rights\/the-enduring-harms-of-trumps-muslim-ban\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Muslim ban<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"border-politics\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Border politics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The current outrage about migrants from Canada entering the U.S., however, harkens back to an earlier period when borders were politicized with the goal of exclusion in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fact that some American politicians are once again asserting that migration across the Canada-U.S. border is a problem, and are using heated rhetoric to try to score political points on the issue, is having the biggest impact on the people at the heart of these migrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As was the case for Chinese migrants beginning in the 1880s, migrants are being exploited for partisan, nationalistic purposes. The potential for enduring harm is great.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>All people have the right to seek refuge \u2014 indeed, the &#8220;right to seek asylum&#8221; and &#8220;enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution&#8221; is enshrined <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/en\/press-releases\/2018\/11\/universal-declaration-human-rights-70-30-articles-30-articles-article-14\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in the United Nations&#8217; Universal Declaration of Human Rights<\/a>, though the means to seek this right are less explicitly outlined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Seeking to get political mileage out of a situation that stems from an ongoing global crisis and involves innocent people seeking better lives ignores bigger political, social, legal and economic conditions. Rather than demonize migrants, legislators everywhere should address the issues that lead them to migrate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8212;<br>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\">Carleton Newsroom<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/201142\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\" alt=\"The Conversation\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. All photos provided by The Conversation from various sources. Concern is reportedly growing among some American legislators about migrants crossing into the United States from Canada. One recent headline intoned: &#8220;U.S. Republicans are now warning: Migration from Canada is a problem&#8221; as some [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":87038,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[1623],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-87037","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_story_type-expert-perspectives"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/87037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/87037\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87043,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/87037\/revisions\/87043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=87037"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=87037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}