Authorities say they are looking for a group of migrants who were inside a vehicle that crashed near the Canada-U.S. border in southern Quebec on Sunday.
Police were called early Sunday to Hemmingford, Que., north of the New York border, where two SUVs collided, with one carrying two people and the other carrying at least 10.
The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) says the 48-year-old driver of the vehicle carrying two people was arrested for impaired driving.
The individuals in the other SUV are believed to be migrants who were illegally crossing the border from the U.S., according to the SQ.
Four of them were transported to hospital, while the other six to eight people fled the scene on foot.
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The four people brought to hospital have non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
On Sunday, the SQ said it was working alongside the RCMP to track down the people who fled.
Helicopters, drones and dogs were deployed in the search. The intense rain hampered efforts in the afternoon, but teams continued to search overnight.
Though RCMP vehicles could be seen patrolling the area on Monday, officials told Global News they would be cutting back search efforts.
Locals express compassion for those fleeing the U.S.
Some local area residents who spoke to Global News said they understood why vulnerable people would be looking to flea the U.S. under the Trump administration’s massive crackdown on migrants without legal status.
“I’m sorry they didn’t get through without an accident,” local resident Doug Goodfellow said.
Another woman, Jean Merlin, said it was “sad that human beings are in a situation like that.”
“I feel for them,” she added.
Frantz Andre, a migrant advocate, also linked the crossing to immigration crackdowns south of the border.
“People are so desperate because they see in the news ICE picking up people at their work place, at home, and sending them to prison,” he said. “Especially now that Trump has opened that Alligator Alcatraz. They’re scared.”
The nearby popular border crossing Roxham Road has been closed since 2023, but authorities say people are still finding ways across different irregular crossings.
Hemmingford residents say confused migrants regularly pop on up in the town’s businesses.
Andre said he is constantly hearing from Haitian people living in the U.S. asking him how they can come to Canada with Trump moving to revoke protections for hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the states.
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