{"id":87169,"date":"2023-03-28T11:45:30","date_gmt":"2023-03-28T15:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&#038;p=87169"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:37:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:37:06","slug":"migrant-border-crossings-trudeau-biden","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/migrant-border-crossings-trudeau-biden\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden are missing the bigger picture about migrant border crossings"},"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\/president-biden-justin-trudeau-1200x900-1c.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                        Justin Trudeau and Joe Biden are missing the bigger picture about migrant border crossings\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\/justin-trudeau-and-joe-biden-are-missing-the-bigger-picture-about-migrant-border-crossings-202546\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">republished<\/a> from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. All photos provided by <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">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\/justin-trudeau-and-joe-biden-are-missing-the-bigger-picture-about-migrant-border-crossings\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and United States President Joe Biden <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/politics\/canada-united-states-border-deal-reach-1.6789815\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">announced unofficial border crossings were no longer exempt from the Safe Third Country Agreement<\/a> \u2014 meaning migrants could be turned away \u2014 news reports <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/montreal\/migrants-roxham-heartbreak-1.6791113\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">documented the surprise and dismay of those who arrived at Roxham Road in Qu\u00e9bec, a few hours past the deadline of midnight, March 25, 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/03\/25\/world\/canada\/migrants-border-asylum.html?searchResultPosition=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Migrants who crossed just hours before the new measures took effect<\/a>, on the other hand, expressed relief to the media that they made it into Canada in time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The media attention on these most recent attempts to cross the Canada-U.S. border helps the public understand what otherwise too often takes place on isolated rural roads and with little accountability. They shed some light on what is happening, but only some. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The issues at play at Roxham Road, on the Qu\u00e9bec-New York border, are larger than any one single border crossing, official or otherwise. They are intimately connected to global political instability, economic equities, exploitation and the enduring question of a state&#8217;s capacity to be humanitarian when it is also in the business of managing migration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image align-center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/517500\/original\/file-20230326-3822-9hon17.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip\" alt=\"A man pulls his luggage down a country road as a white and grey cat trots past him.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\n              <span class=\"caption\">A Haitian man tows his luggage down Roxham Road in Champlain, N.Y., while heading to an unofficial border station across from Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Que., in August 2017.<\/span><br>\n              <span class=\"attribution\"><span class=\"source\">(AP Photo\/Charles Krupa)<\/span><\/span><br>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"shining-a-spotlight\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Shining a spotlight<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The need to see beyond the immediate crossing point is urgent and necessary, because the modified Safe Third Country Agreement is not the end of the story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Raising public awareness about the issues surrounding migration has been a critical part of <a href=\"https:\/\/uucsj.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Sanctuary-Toolkit-2017.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">civil society activism on refugee issues in recent years<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was a cornerstone of the <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.25071\/1920-7336.30602\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">1980s sanctuary movement<\/a>, when there were animated debates about the nature of responsibilities to refugees in the United States and, to some extent, in Canada. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In March 1982, the Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Ariz., alongside five churches from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foundsf.org\/index.php?title=Berkeley%27s_Sanctuary_Movement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Francisco Bay area<\/a>, declared themselves public sanctuaries for migrants from Central America who were fleeing civil wars and political persecution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ronald Reagan administration, <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/9781118607770.ch24\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">which funded guerrilla movements in Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador<\/a>, had made it difficult for people to file asylum claims \u2014 and the few that were heard were disproportionately refused. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For instance, only three per cent of claims <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1985\/10\/21\/us\/trial-opening-in-arizona-in-alien-sanctuary-case.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">from El Salvador were accepted<\/a>, despite testimony from refugees about brutal persecution that was echoed by human rights observers. The speed of the refusals and the deportations made it difficult for people to learn about the circumstances that had caused people to flee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As civil society activists began to educate themselves about what was going on in Central America, they recognized that U.S. foreign policy was contributing to the conflicts that were fuelling migration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They connected the dots and argued that the U.S. government&#8217;s failure to address asylum claims from Central Americans in a fair and just manner was part of a larger strategy of refusing responsibility for the tumult in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image align-center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/517498\/original\/file-20230326-3182-zzsq8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip\" alt=\"Two heavily armed soldiers walk through a jungle.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\n              <span class=\"caption\">In this 1986 photo, a Sandinista soldier walks warily through the jungle on a patrol to hunt U.S.-backed contra rebels in northern Nicaragua.<\/span><br>\n              <span class=\"attribution\"><span class=\"source\">(AP Photo\/Andrew Selsky)<\/span><\/span><br>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"civil-initiative\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8216;Civil initiative&#8217;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To address the situation, civil society organizations began to collaborate on multiple levels in what <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quakersintheworld.org\/quakers-in-action\/188\/Quakers-in-the-Sanctuary-Movement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jim Corbett<\/a>, a Quaker and Arizona rancher who was deeply involved in the movement, described as &#8220;civil initiative.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This involved everything from helping people across the Mexico\u2013U.S. border to offering legal advice and support, facilitating or providing translation services, and advocating publicly on behalf of refugees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Alongside public declarations of sanctuary, Corbett talked about &#8220;public witness&#8221; as a &#8220;key dimension of efforts to end the persecution&#8221; (detailed in Miriam Davidson&#8217;s <em><a href=\"https:\/\/uapress.arizona.edu\/book\/convictions-of-the-heart\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Convictions of the Heart: Jim Corbett and the Sanctuary Movement<\/a><\/em>). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Crucially, some refugees in sanctuary chose or were invited to speak about their experiences. They often described their own circumstances. However, they also talked about the conditions in their homelands, and raised awareness about violent conflicts that might not have been as well understood otherwise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Authorities recognized how powerful \u2014 and damning \u2014 this information was. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the 1985 <a href=\"https:\/\/speccoll.library.arizona.edu\/collections\/sanctuary-trial-papers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sanctuary trial<\/a> \u2014 in which 11 members of the sanctuary movement were tried for various felonies including smuggling and transportation \u2014 the ruling judge specifically denied the introduction of any foreign policy evidence or testimony about events in people&#8217;s homelands as part of the proceedings. <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/46751c1cc895c81f858b3c9e2dd7df8a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Six of the activists, including Corbett, were convicted, though all received probation.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The judge&#8217;s actions illustrates the importance of the larger story when it comes to migration issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"what-fuels-migration\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">What fuels migration?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The current discussions of migration across the Canada\u2013U.S. border, in both directions, are focused only on the movement of migrants themselves, with little sense or interest in the circumstances that are causing people to move. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, we are only seeing migrants, not the bigger picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Take for example, the situation in Venezuela, described by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unhcr.org\/venezuela-emergency.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees<\/a> as one of the largest displacement crises in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are currently an estimated seven million Venezuelan migrants and refugees abroad as a result of the turbulent economic and political conditions in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image align-center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/517502\/original\/file-20230326-2593-gym92a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip\" alt=\"A man in a blue shirt is seen in a sea of people.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">\n              <span class=\"caption\">In this July 2016 photo, a man stands over a crowd of Venezuelans waiting to cross the border into Colombia in San Antonio del Tachira, Venezuela.<\/span><br>\n              <span class=\"attribution\"><span class=\"source\">(AP Photo\/Ariana Cubillos, File)<\/span><\/span><br>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The United States government has suspended direct flights to Venezuela, as has the Canadian government. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is also a <a href=\"https:\/\/travel.gc.ca\/destinations\/venezuela\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Canadian travel advisory<\/a> telling people to &#8220;avoid all travel to Venezuela due to the significant level of violent crime, the unstable political and economic situations and the decline in basic living conditions, including shortages of medication, gasoline and water.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"border-crossings-lets-not-impose-further-burdens\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Border crossings: Let&#8217;s not impose further burdens<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Having a sense of the larger picture isn&#8217;t about the merits of individual claims, or how people decide to seek better lives, or what borders they crossed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s about having a better understanding of how and why people all over the world <a href=\"https:\/\/criticalrefugeestudies.com\/story-maps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">are moving<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the public education component of the 1980s sanctuary movement shows, this is work all of us can do. As people lose the capacity to be heard, the burden falls on all of us to understand circumstances abroad rather than to make assumptions about who people are, and what they may or may not have endured, based solely on how they are moving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If we&#8217;re going to have robust and substantive conversations about migration policy and humanitarian responsibilities, then we need to zoom out \u2014 beyond the immediacy of the border \u2014 to better understand the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.migrationdataportal.org\/themes\/mixed-migration\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">interconnected circumstances<\/a> that lead people to make all kinds of decisions about their lives, including the decision to move. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After all, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/speeches-remarks\/2023\/03\/24\/remarks-by-president-biden-and-prime-minister-trudeau-of-canada-in-joint-press-conference\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in announcing<\/a> the amended Safe Third Country agreement, both Trudeau and Biden were careful not to speculate about how people will migrate now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s because they haven&#8217;t examined the bigger picture or addressed any root causes. So the question remains: What happens next?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>__<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\/202546\/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. When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and United States President Joe Biden announced unofficial border crossings were no longer exempt from the Safe Third Country Agreement \u2014 meaning migrants could be turned away \u2014 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":87170,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[1623],"cu_story_tag":[],"class_list":["post-87169","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\/87169","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\/87169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87179,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/87169\/revisions\/87179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=87169"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=87169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}