The Liberal government’s decision to lift the visa requirement for Mexican nationals became a “bilateral irritant” with the Biden administration, as the number of migrants on both sides of the border spiked, newly released documents show.
Immigration Minister Marc Miller reinstated visas for Mexican citizens on Feb. 29, 2024 to slow what he called “exponential growth” in asylum claims straining Canada’s refugee system and provinces’ resources, while also drawing the ire of U.S. officials.
Internal government briefing notes shed new light on Washington’s “concerns regarding abuse” of the visa exemption, and the pressure Ottawa was under to reimpose the requirement.
“Mexican nationals entering Canada … subsequently attempting to enter the U.S. illegally remains a bilateral irritant,” reads the document obtained by Global News through access to information laws.
“The idea that the United States sees something is an ‘irritant’ is notable because what the Americans see as an ‘irritant’ is seen by Canadians as existential … that is likely the last straw,” Carleton University political science professor Aaron Ettinger said.
The briefing notes dated Jan. 23 – a month before Miller reinstated the visa requirement – include talking points prepared for Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc ahead of a meeting with U.S. Ambassador David Cohen.
“Canada shares U.S. concerns regarding abuse of visa-free travel by Mexican passport holders,” the document says.
“I (LeBlanc) understand the impacts that Canadian visa decisions have on the Canada-U.S. border, and the increased degree of illegal southbound migration generated by the Mexico visa exemption.”
Ettinger, who specializes in U.S. foreign policy, says Canada likely weighed those concerns heavily.
Ottawa can “withstand criticism” from the provinces, but “it becomes something larger when it comes to the United States.… Canada tends to take things a lot more seriously,” the Carleton professor said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau removed the visa requirement in 2016, put in place by his predecessor Stephen Harper. It was considered a point of contention with Mexico, Canada’s third largest trading partner.
What followed was a surge in asylum claims in Canada and an increase in migrant crossings at the U.S-Canada border.
Between 2016 and 2023, asylum claims from Mexican nationals to Canada soared, reaching a record high of nearly 24,000 last year, with most arriving in Quebec. According to the federal immigration department, approximately 60 per cent of those claims were rejected, withdrawn or abandoned.
After the visa exemption, the number of people trying to cross the U.S.-Canadian border also reached unprecedented levels.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 189,402 “encounters” at the northern border in 2023, which is a nearly 600 per cent increase from 2021.
“These are migrants or others who are trying to cross the border from Canada into the United States,” Fen Hampson, president of the World Refugee and Migration Council, said in an interview with Global News.
“In many cases, they’re turned back. Sometimes they’re taken into custody where they await a decision on whether they can stay in the United States.”
Last month, Joe Biden blocked migrants from claiming asylum when U.S. officials deem the southern border is overwhelmed, in what is considered one of the most restrictive immigration policies by a Democratic president in recent memory.
The numbers at the U.S.-Canada border pale in comparison to the more than two million “encounters” at the U.S.-Mexico border last year.
But they were enough to cause concern in Washington over Canada’s visa policy.
While there was “gentle criticism” publicly from the U.S., the documents suggest the “Americans were pressing” Ottawa privately to reverse course, in part because of “public safety” issues, says Ettinger.
How organized crime is playing a role
On Feb. 7, 2024 — three weeks before the Mexican visa requirement was reinstated — Richard Burchill, the RCMP’s acting assistant commissioner of federal policing criminal operations, appeared before the standing committee on citizenship and immigration and said “organized criminals of all stripes, Mexican cartel included” are involved in the smuggling of “vulnerable people” into Canada.
“In Canada, from our investigations across the country, there is Mexican organized crime involved in this,” Burchill told MPs.
The World Refugee and Migration Council president says Mexican gangs, including the Sinaloa Cartel and Los Zetas, are exploiting “weak law enforcement.”
“They’re finding Canada to be a very hospitable place to do business; drugs, money laundering, and increasingly human smuggling and trafficking,” Hampson said.
“We have a problem with our porous ports…. We see that when cars are stolen and shipped out of the country.”
Hampson also pointed to gang violence, domestic abuse, poverty and persecution fuelling migration across Latin America and beyond.
“It’s not just Mexicans or Mexican nationals, which account for just a little over half of the interceptions by U.S. authorities. The second biggest category are South Asians, particularly individuals from India.”
Before committee, the immigration minister acknowledged that “criminals take advantage of the vulnerability and volume of people who come to Canada.”
“However, regardless of a person’s reason for coming to Canada, a passport or visa requirement won’t stop an individual determined to do this sort of thing,” Miller said on Feb. 7.
Will the visa reimposition make a difference?
In a statement to Global News, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spokesperson Isabelle Dubois said the “number of claims made by Mexican nationals at Canadian airports has significantly decreased” since the visa requirement was reinstated.
When asked how much U.S. concerns factored into Ottawa’s actions Dubois said, “Canada’s visa policy decisions are sovereign … based on a comprehensive, rigorous assessment of risks and benefits.”
But Hampson doubts the move will stem the flow of migrants, calling the visa reimposition a “kill switch.”
“This is an easy thing for governments to do, but it doesn’t really address the core of the problem, which is the criminal networks that are involved in moving people across borders,” he said. “It’s all part of a bigger package, and it’s not going to be solved by putting a visa on Mexicans.”