Immigration lawyer fears dangerous illegal border crossings will continue

A Winnipeg immigration lawyer expects dangerous illegal border crossings between Canada and the United States to continue, after nine people were detained in the most recent high-profile crossing.

Those nine were arrested and one person remains missing after trying to walk across the Canada-U.S. border from Manitoba to Minnesota early Tuesday morning.

The group crossed near Sprague, Man., about two hours southeast of Winnipeg.

At around 4 a.m., the group called 911 and requested help as they were suffering from hypothermia. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) says agents located the group in a flooded bog and confirmed to CityNews that seven out of the nine people had illegally entered the United States and did not have any documentation.

Manitoba RCMP says police conducted a search on the Canadian side of the border for a possible missing person Tuesday evening, but nothing was found.

RELATED:

• Roxham Road, bodies near the border and the future of Canada-U.S. migration
• Uptick of illegal border crossings in U.S. from Canada

“This is a tragedy and to be completely frank, I expect more of these to happen in the future,” said Alastair Clarke, a lawyer with Clarke Immigration Law.

Last month Ottawa negotiated a deal with the U.S. that now allows Canada to turn back migrants coming north from the U.S. at irregular crossing points. The deal applies the Safe Third Country Agreement across the entire U.S.-Canada border that spans more than 8,800 kilometres.

Clarke says this new policy will hurt more people than it helps.

“They closed Roxham Road, which was the main route to Canada,” he said. “They’ve closed other ports of entry, other places where individuals have been crossing into Canada, and now these individuals are forced to take more dangerous paths.”

‘It’s not worth the risk’

U.S. Customs and Border Protection says there has been a drastic uptick recently in the number of people trying to enter North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin illegally from Canada.

“I think it could always get worse but the hope is that it will get better,” said David Marcus, a border patrol agent with USCBP.

Marcus says people either try to cross the land border alone, or many attempt the daring entry with their families, including children.

Last year the bodies of the Patel family, including two children, were found frozen near Emerson, Man., just metres from the U.S. border.

Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel (left to right), son Dharmik Jagdishkumar Patel, wife and mother Vaishaliben Jagdishkumar Patel and daughter Vihangi Jagdishkumar Patel are shown in a handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Amritbhai Vakil **MANDATORY CREDIT**

Marcus says people are becoming desperate.

“I think they think that it’s going to be easier to cross, but it isn’t, just because of remote areas that we have in the areas of our responsibility, as well as the climate factors.

“My message to anybody who is planning to cross is don’t do it. It’s not worth the risk.”