Former president Donald Trump made the claim that the United States is suffering from a flood of illegal immigration not just from Mexico, but from Canada as well.
Trump called into Fox News’ coverage of Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention to offer his thoughts on the vice president’s speech.
Trump slammed the Biden-Harris administration for allowing what he describes as an “invasion” of illegal immigrants into the country crossing the southern border but also knocked the administration for an uptick in illegal crossings from Canada.
“It’s an invasion of our country taking place at our border, our southern border, it’s a total invasion. And now it’s starting at our northern border also, through Canada,” said Trump.
The former president blamed Vice President Harris for allowing the United States’ border situation to descend into a crisis, citing her role as President Joe Biden’s “border czar.”
Indeed, the United States has experienced a massive upsurge in illegal border crossings from Canada.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol recorded 189,402 migrant encounters at the Canada-U.S. border in 2023, up 73% from the previous years and 597% from 2021 when there were only 27,180 such encounters
Data also shows that far more known and suspected terrorists try to cross into the United States through the Canadian border rather than the Mexican border, as 484 individuals were detained at the northern border compared with 92 who were caught at the southern border.
Migrants are increasingly taking flights to Canada with the hopes of getting to the United States illegally through the Canada-U.S. border, the longest undefended border in the world.
Trump’s rhetoric mirrors that of the former Republican candidate for president Vivek Ramaswamy during the 2024 primary elections.
Back in Oct 2023, Ramaswamy visited the United States’ southern and northern border, saying that America needed to build both walls, referring to the partially built border wall at the Mexico-U.S. border.
“It’s not “Build-the-Wall” anymore. It’s Build *Both* Walls,” said Ramaswamy.
Around the same time, New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu announced the creation of a northern border alliance task force to conduct patrols along the Canada-U.S. border, complaining that the federal government was not taking action on the issue.
American officials successfully pressured the Trudeau government to reimpose a visa requirement on Mexican citizens visiting Canada to prevent Mexican nationals from entering the United States from Canada.
Canada is dealing with its own surge of illegal border crossing into the United States, as in 2023, Canada had 31,521 refugee claims by those who had crossed the border illegally.