Canada High Court Upholds Immigration Pact With US

Facts

• The Canadian Supreme Court on Friday upheld the 2002 Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), an immigration pact with the US that says asylum seekers must apply in the first country they arrive in. Those who reach the US first but cross the border are returned to the US.¹
• The Federal Court had found the agreement unconstitutional in 2020, ruling it denied migrants' rights to life, liberty, and security by sending them back to the US, where they're often detained in what it said is solitary confinement or unsafe conditions.²
• The Canadian government appealed the ruling, bringing the argument — led by the Canadian Council of Refugees, Amnesty International Canada, and the Canadian Council of Churches, alongside eight other plaintiffs — to the Supreme Court in October.³
• The pact initially applied to only land-based ports of entry but not irregular or unofficial crossings, resulting in tens of thousands of illegal crossings into Canada in recent years. In March, Pres. Joe Biden and PM Justin Trudeau amended it to include the entire border.⁴
• Since 2017 and before the March amendment, enough migrants crossed from the US into Canada via Roxham Road outside Champlain, New York, that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police staffed a reception center to process them.¹
• The case will now be sent back to the lower federal courts for consideration.³

Sources: ¹ABC News, ²POLITICO, ³BBC News, and ⁴Guardian.

Narratives

• Pro-establishment narrative, as provided by SCC. While the court did agree that some migrants in the US face risks of detention and refoulement upon their expulsion from Canada, it also cited Canada's ability to retain asylum-seekers if they could prove potential harsh treatment in the US. This decision abides by both the STCA and the Constitution, as it upholds the mutually agreed upon treaty and considers the possibility of exceptional asylum cases.
• Establishment-critical narrative, as provided by Amnesty International Canada. Not only does the STCA force vulnerable refugees back into the US, where they will be treated inhumanely, but it gives them no choice but to make dangerous treks across the border to avoid detainment and expulsion. Every refugee has the right to claim asylum in Canada no matter how they arrived, meaning this ruling blatantly violates international law and basic human dignity.
• Narrative C, as provided by The Post Millennial. Both conservative and liberal Canadians believe the STCA is flawed but for drastically different reasons. While the right wants to avoid the caravans of migrants the US faces at its southern border, the left thinks everybody should be welcome for any reason. The STCA has been a mess since its implementation, the extent of which is proven by the left and right actually agreeing.