Canada restores visa requirements for Mexican visitors
Canada announced Thursday that it will require visas for Mexican nationals to enter the country, a move that comes amid a wave of asylum applications from Mexicans arriving in Canada.
The rule follows months of discussions between the two countries over the increase in the number of Mexicans entering Canada, including repeated attempts by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to raise the issue with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Some provincial officials say a surge of asylum seekers has strained their resources and ability to provide social services.
“We had to give Mexico, because of our friendship, the opportunity to put things right,” Marc Miller, Canada’s immigration minister, said at a news conference.
“This was clearly not done,” he added, “so we had to make a decision.”
The visa mandate, which comes into effect on Thursday evening, was lifted by Mr Trudeau in 2016 to boost tourism and as a sign of the close ties between the two countries.
Since then, the number of Mexican asylum applications has soared, from 260 eight years ago to about 24,000 last year. About 17 percent of all Canadian asylum applications last year were filed by Mexican nationals.
Most asylum claims from Mexico are rejected, withdrawn or abandoned, Mr. Miller said, clogging an immigration system already struggling to process a growing backlog of refugee applications. “It has ripple effects,” he said.
For some Mexicans who can afford plane tickets, flying to Canada has become an alternative route to the United States, allowing them to avoid the smugglers who control routes to the U.S. southern border.
U.S. immigration officials have recorded a large increase in the number of migrants, including Mexicans, entering the United States from Canada, though nowhere near the huge numbers at the southern border.
“But they are important,” Mr. Miller said. “And that is something that we have to manage as a partner with the US”
Immigration has become a major issue in the United States ahead of the November election, and the Biden administration has made tightening the country’s borders a top political priority.
President Biden and Donald J. Trump, who will almost certainly be his Republican rival for the White House, were both scheduled to appear in South Texas on Thursday to discuss migration.
Mr. López Obrador told reporters on Thursday that his government respected Canada’s decision but said Canada could have looked for “other alternatives,” without providing details.
He also issued a “small, respectful, brotherly rebuke” to Mr. Trudeau, though he said his government’s response would be “to act with caution and serenity.”
Not all Mexicans need a visa to travel to Canada. The rule excludes Mexicans who have held a Canadian visa within the past 10 years or currently hold a temporary U.S. visa. Travelers in this category require an electronic travel authorization, which is valid for a maximum of five years.
Canada’s visa decision is the latest step in the country’s efforts to address asylum claims made through regular ports of entry, such as airports, and from unofficial border crossings.
Canadian officials also imposed restrictions on foreign students in January, doubling the savings threshold new applicants must have to qualify for a study permit, after a wave raised concerns about housing pressures.
Following an agreement with the United States, Canada last year closed a popular land border crossing between New York state and Quebec, called Roxham Road, after a spike in the number of migrants entering Canada there.
Some provincial leaders, including Quebec Premier François Legault, have criticized the federal government’s response, saying it should provide more financial aid to cover the costs of absorbing thousands of migrants.
About half of Canada’s 290,000 asylum seekers are in Quebec, the province’s immigration minister has said, and Quebec is asking the government for C$1 billion in aid.
Emiliano Rodriguez Mega contributed reporting from Mexico City.