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No guarantee of residence for migrants fleeing US for Canada

In this Aug. 7, 2017 file photo, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer informs a migrant couple of the location of a legal border station, shortly before they illegally crossed from Champlain, N.Y., to Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec, using Roxham Road. Authorities say more than 80 percent of the 4,000 migrants who crossed into Quebec recently are from Haiti, and the rest include people from India, Mexico, Colombia and Turkey. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

MONTREAL — Men and women with furrowed brows sat in pews alongside their children at a Montreal church as volunteers explained what to expect now that they have crossed into Canada from the United States seeking asylum.

They would receive temporary housing stipends and access to medical care. Their kids could go to school. The volunteers handed out small maple-leaf flags.

“I like Canada very much,” 26-year-old Marline Dorisma of Haiti said later. “There are lots of opportunities here.”

What they did not get were any assurances that they will be allowed to stay. In fact, many will eventually be told to go back home.

The migrants are part of a recent surge of people crossing over from the United States, including some 4,000 in just the last two weeks, that is straining Canada’s immigration system to the point where officials turned a domed stadium into a makeshift shelter.

Many said they left fearing deportation due to increased immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump and believing Canada would automatically give them residence, only to experience a rude awakening upon arrival.

It’s a widely held misbelief that Transport Minister Marc Garneau sought to dispel during a recent visit to the international border near Quebec, where migrants have been crossing over from northern New York.

“Unless you are being persecuted or fleeing terror or war, you would not qualify as a refugee,” Garneau said, “and it’s important to combat that misinformation that is out there.”

Like in the United States, rules in Canada allow for asylum for people who can demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution in their homeland based on race, religion, political opinion, nationality or membership in a group like the LBGT community. People can also be accepted if Canada fears they face torture or cruel or unusual punishment if they are deported.

But those deemed to be economic migrants are given orders of deportation through a process that can range from several months to many years.

Last year Canada granted asylum to 63 percent of applicants, for a total of nearly 16,000, according to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. For Haitians it was 52 percent, said Jean-Nicolas Beuze.

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