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WSJ News Exclusive | U.S. Pushes Canada to Impose Visas on Mexican
Visitors to Ease Flow from North
Vipal Monga, Michelle Hackman and Santiago Pérez

The U.S. is pushing Canada to impose visa requirements on Mexican
visitors, aiming to stem a surge in illegal crossings at the northern
border as immigration shapes up as an election-defining issue across North America.

Officials in the U.S. say that Mexican migrants are using the Canadian
border as a back door into the U.S., avoiding the busy and more closely
guarded southwestern border and gaining the attention of some presidential candidates. Nikki Haley, who is vying for the Republican nomination
against Donald Trump, in December called for more attention on the
northern crossing during a visit to New Hampshire, and the number of
migrants intercepted at the northern border is quickly growing.

Now Washington is increasing the pressure on Canada to require Mexican
visitors to obtain visas, according to a U.S. official familiar with the discussions and government officials in Mexico. Homeland Security
Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said during a visit to Ottawa last year that
the U.S. had been speaking to Canada about the matter.

A spokeswoman for Canada's immigration department declined to comment.

Canada's Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc has said Ottawa is
considering a range of options to curb the number of Mexican asylum
seekers, including reimposing a visa.

One government official said Canada is wary of announcing any new travel restrictions before they are implemented to avoid triggering a rush to the border that could overwhelm customs officials.

Last year, rumors that Canada and the U.S. were about to close unofficial border crossings created a surge of crossings at Roxham Road, a path
between New York state and Quebec.

The U.S. Border Patrol detained more than 10,000 migrants at the northern border during the fiscal year that ended in September, five times as many
as in 2022. Almost half of them were Mexican nationals, according to U.S. government data. Canada itself is struggling with a jump in Mexican asylum seekers, whose numbers have more than doubled in the past year.

"It's not a number like those we see along the U.S.-Mexico border, but
it's something that we want to address," said Roberto Velasco, head of
North American affairs at Mexico's Foreign Ministry. Over half a million Mexicans were apprehended in the last fiscal year at the U.S.'s
southwestern border.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lifted the visa requirement for
Mexican visitors in 2016 as part of efforts to deepen ties with one of
Canada's largest trading partners. They can get an electronic travel authorization by filling out an online application, which costs the
equivalent of about $5.

Last week, Trudeau said Canadian officials are in discussions with Mexican counterparts to find ways to reduce the flow of asylum seekers. Both
countries say that organized crime groups arrange travel to Canada for
Mexicans looking for work. Some are often trapped in forced-labor schemes, Velasco said. Others are transported to the U.S. border.

Canada's federal police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, last
week said it had charged two Mexican citizens with conspiring to transport
11 people from Quebec to the U.S.

The Mexican government says it's working with Canada's immigration
authorities to strengthen screening of travelers and cut down on bogus
asylum claims. That led to a decrease in applications at Canadian airports
in December. Mexico is also starting information campaigns in some
communities with significant emigration to Canada to prevent would-be
guest workers falling victim to trafficking rings.

About half a million Mexican tourists visited Canada last year, spending
about $750 million, according to Mexican government estimates. There are
about 150,000 Mexicans legally residing in the country.

"We believe that reimposing visas would have an impact on the flow of
tourists and business travel mobility in both countries," Velasco said.

Illegal crossings from the north are becoming more frequent along a
295-mile stretch of border that separates the states of New York, New
Hampshire and Vermont from the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario.

The area, known as the Swanton Sector, is thinly staffed by U.S. Border
Patrol agents. There is no fencing to deter interlopers, who cross the
border by tramping through snow-covered fields, making treacherous
crossings of the St. Lawrence River, or cutting through thick forests and wetlands.

Canadian officials say that the number of Mexican asylum seekers has more
than doubled in the past year, straining budgets and welfare resources in provinces such as Quebec, which receives more than half of Mexican asylum seekers. Many arrivals ask for asylum as soon as they disembark from
commercial flights.

The increase in migration is straining Canada's housing markets, public healthcare services and the country's social safety net, contributing to a decline in Trudeau's approval ratings ahead of an election expected by
October next year.

In January, the province of Quebec demanded that he slow the number of
refugee claimants because the province is nearing a "breaking point" as it shelters and provides services to the asylum seekers.

"Mexican nationals represent a growing proportion of asylum seekers
arriving in Quebec, the possibility of entering Canada from Mexico without
a visa certainly explains part of the flow," said Quebec's Premier
Francois Legault.

On Tuesday, Quebec provincial ministers demanded $750 million to reimburse
the province for the cost of providing for asylum seekers.

For some, Canada has offered an important avenue of escape from organized crime. A 25-year asylum claimant said she and her family fled to Toronto
from southern Mexico days after being threatened at gunpoint by a local
gang in April and claimed asylum on arrival.

The process could have taken weeks if she and her family would have had to
fill out visa forms, which would have put their lives at risk, said Diana Gallego, a refugee advocate who runs FCJ Refugee Centre, a nonprofit in
Toronto that helps migrants get settled in the city.

Now, the family is awaiting a date with the Immigration and Refugee Board
of Canada to see if they will be allowed to stay. The wait times for
asylum hearings is roughly two years, according to the Canadian
government.

Write to Vipal Monga at vipal.monga@wsj.com, Michelle Hackman at michelle.hackman@wsj.com and Santiago Pérez at santiago.perez@wsj.com




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