XPost: alt.politics.trump, alt.politics.radical-left, sac.politics
XPost: alt.politics.democrats, can.politics
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/03/03/more-united-states- citizens-seeking-refuge-canada/98715786/
Canada is world famous for welcoming refugees, but one group has had a
tough time getting in: U.S. citizens.
A small but increasing number of Americans want refuge in Canada. In fact,
the number of them requesting asylum north of the border more than doubled between 2015 and 2016, from 80 to 187, according to Canada Border Services Agency data. Most of them were denied.
Some are trying to avoid going to prison, others refuse to fight in
America’s wars. Now, immigration lawyers are predicting more U.S. citizens
will attempt to flee for Canada — to escape President Trump’s America.
But despite Canada’s open-door reputation for those in need, admitting
more than 40,000 Syrian refugees since 2015, its acceptance rate for
American asylum-seekers is below 1 percent, according to the Immigration
and Refugee Board of Canada.
“I am aware of one [American] adult in 2014 who was accepted as a person
in need of protection. All the others were children,” said Melissa
Anderson, the spokeswoman for Canada’s refugee tribunal.
Normally, the only American citizens who get refugee status in Canada are
the children of undocumented immigrants, including children born in the US
to parents living there illegally, she explained.
Their numbers aren’t nearly as big as, say, Syrians or Colombians, who are among the leading nationals seeking asylum in the country. America does
not have the same life-threatening dangers. But US citizens have cited
several reasons for making refugee claims in Canada.
Trouble with the law
At the end of 2015, Canada’s immigration authorities ordered the
deportation of a 25-year-old asylum-seeker from Illinois.
Canadian court documents identify the man as “X.” They say he was wanted
in the U.S. for “enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity,” when he
was 22 and the girl was 15. He had met the girl online, driven to her
house and honked for her to get into his car, at which time the girl’s stepfather intervened. He faced 10 years in US prison.
He told the Canadian refugee tribunal that his only intention was to meet
the girl.
Canada rejected his request. A judge said there were “reasonable grounds”
and enough evidence provided by US authorities for the panel to consider
the man guilty as charged.
But another American escaping sex charges in the U.S. was more successful.
In 2014, 47-year-old Denise Harvey, who was facing 30 years in U.S. prison
for having sex with a 16-year-old boy, got admitted as a protected person
in Canada.
It turns out that 16 is the age of consent in Canada, and the woman
wouldn’t have faced criminal charges for her actions had they taken place
in in the country.
Then there was Kyle Lydell Canty, an African American who in 2015 was
facing charges in the US including jaywalking and disorderly conduct. As
CBC News reported, he applied for refugee status in Canada, claiming he
was a victim of racism and police brutality. Canada rejected him.
“It’s very unusual” for Canada to grant refugee claims to Americans, said Marshall Garnick, an immigration lawyer in Toronto. It could cause “an international incident for the government of Canada to accept Americans
[as refugees]. It’s not good for Canada’s image.”
Opposition to war
In the past decade, a number of U.S. soldiers have requested asylum to
avoid being court-martialed for refusing to deploy to Iraq and
Afghanistan. For instance, in 2013, the refugee tribunal in Toronto denied
the refugee claim of a 27-year-old U.S. soldier who deserted after serving
in Afghanistan. In court documents, he stated that he felt that American military presence in Afghanistan was creating a police state.
Canada denied the claims by U.S. Iraq and Afghan war objectors.
One asylum-seeker, Rodney Watson, is a U.S. Army veteran who refused to
return for a second tour in Iraq. He has been living in a church in
Vancouver for seven years to avoid deportation.
Although the numbers are much lower, these war resisters' motives may be reminiscent of the historic exodus to Canada of tens and thousands of
Americans who opposed the Vietnam War, many of whom remained.
More expected under Trump
A rising number of African and Middle Eastern migrants are crossing the
U.S. border for refuge in Canada. Trump’s immigration crackdown, and
Canada’s openness, are expected to beckon more to follow.
“Virtually every person who’s crossed, from pregnant women in the back of trucks to those shepherding their children to safety, have said to us that
the United States is no longer a safe country for them to be in,” Paul Caulford, a doctor at the Canadian Centre for Refugee and Immigrant
Healthcare outside Toronto, told the Otherhood podcast in February.
After Trump’s executive order in January to halt the arrival of all
refugees and certain Muslim travelers, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau said, “Canadians welcome you, regardless of your faith.”
That executive order is suspended after court challenges against it. But
the Trump administration is ordering more immigration restrictions and deportations.
Up until now, Canadian refugee lawyers said most of their American clients
were largely the children of undocumented immigrants, service members who didn't want to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan, or spoke out against the
U.S. military; people with mental health problems; or fugitives from
justice.
A few Americans who were facing the death penalty have also sought safety
in Canada, because Canada will not send someone back to face capital punishment, according to its extradition terms with the US, said attorney
Peter Edelmann, who has represented Americans who were seeking asylum in Canada.
But with Trump in power, Canada should expect new types of cases, the
refugee attorneys said.
“We're going to get a new kind of refugee claim from US citizens in the
next four years — they won’t be like the ones in the past,” Garnick said
in an email. “It’s not going to be primarily the US army deserters who
were dishonorably discharged due to their refusal to be deployed or
redeployed to Iraq. It will be a different kind of U.S. citizen refugee claimant.”
For example, Garnick said a Muslim American citizen of Iranian descent
might get asylum in Canada if they show they cannot live safely in the US because of the threat of injury or death, or that they can’t get a job due
to their religion or ethnic background.
“In other words, if [the Muslim American] could prove that a blanket
travel ban like the one Trump brought in is not just causing him to feel uneasy, but actually has caused him a reasonable subjective and objective
fear, due to letters of threat or perhaps some other incident,” Garnick
said, “he'd have a chance at a refugee hearing.”
--
Donald J. Trump, 304 electoral votes to 227, defeated compulsive liar in
denial Hillary Rodham Clinton on December 19th, 2016. The clown car
parade of the democrat party has run out of gas.
Congratulations President Trump. Thank you for ending the disaster of the Obama presidency.
Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
The World According To Garp.
ObamaCare is a total 100% failure and no lie that can be put forth by its supporters can dispute that.
Obama jobs, the result of ObamaCare. 12-15 working hours a week at minimum wage, no benefits and the primary revenue stream for ObamaCare. It can't
be funded with money people don't have, yet liberals lie about how great
it is.
Obama increased total debt from $10 trillion to $20 trillion in the eight
years he was in office, and sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood queer
liberal democrat donors.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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