Driven deeper into hiding

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This article was published 10/10/2024 (672 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PEMBINA, N.D. — RCMP and American border officials are warning that legislative changes appear to have driven migrants who are illegally crossing the international boundary deeper into the shadows, as the number of people intercepted by Mounties increased this year.

Changes made to the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement in 2023 mean people who walk into either country between ports of entry are to be turned back if they are found within 14 days of their arrival, but are able to attempt asylum claims after that period.

RCMP Sgt. Lance Goldau, who oversees the Manitoba border enforcement team out of the Altona detachment, said the migrants his team catches now tend to spend those two weeks in hiding.

A group of migrants, mostly from the west African nation of Chad, told Mounties after they were arrested earlier this year that their smuggler instructed them to claim they had hid in a shed in Blumenort for 15 days after crossing.

Migrants used to immediately call 911 or seek shelter in nearby towns after crossing the border, Goldau said, before making asylum claims and awaiting immigration hearings.

“We have seen a real shift … on how these people are moving across the border,” said Goldau, adding it has pushed the illegal migration further underground.

“They are evading apprehension, they’re avoiding arrest, and they’re doing anything they can to stay in Canada for that 14-day window.”

Goldau made the comments at a news conference in Pembina, N.D., just south of the Emerson border crossing, as RCMP and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials warned would-be migrants of the extreme danger they will face if they attempt to cross in the winter months.

“They don’t comprehend how cold it can get,” said Customs and Border Protection Chief Patrol Agent Scott Garrett (Grand Forks sector). “This can be a matter of life or death.”

The warning from border officials is not an empty one. A family of four from India froze to death in a snow-packed field while trying to walk into the U.S. just east of Emerson during a January 2022 blizzard.

Jagdish Patel, 39, his wife, Vaishaliben, 37, their daughter, Vihangi, 11, and son, Dharmik, 3, were found dead metres from the border. The Patels were trying to emigrate to the U.S., where they had family.

“It haunts us as investigators, but troubles us further as human beings,” said Goldau of the deaths.

Goldau said migrants often try to escape their countries for political, social or religious reasons. Most pay smugglers to get them to the border, and depending on their country of origin and other factors, the prices can range from hundreds of dollars to more than $10,000.

Smugglers no longer take migrants across themselves, instead providing them with GPS coordinates for smartphones directing them where to go, which border officials said is an attempt to avoid prosecution.

Many migrants are dropped off far from a port of entry and left to fend for themselves, with only vague directions to connect with someone waiting for them on the other side. Some migrants are left unaware of the extreme weather and geography they could encounter.

The officials warned would-be migrants that the human smugglers see them as dollar signs and care little for their safety and well-being.

Garrett said, despite messages and warnings from border patrol and other agencies about winter dangers, migrants are still attempting to make the crossings.

Garrett said his agency has determined that Mexican cartels, who control all smuggling at the southwest border between the U.S. and Mexico, have gotten involved at the northern border, though the cartel members themselves have so far remained in Mexico.

The cartels have so-called “plaza bosses,” who control smuggling in certain regions of influence.

“We’re beginning to see that the plaza bosses on the southwest are paying for the flights and the migrants to come up into Canada and then get farmed out along the border to go back down south,” said Garrett, noting most of those migrants are either Mexican or Central American.

Garrett and Goldau said changes this year, requiring Mexican citizens to obtain a visa for specific purposes in order to fly to Canada, have begun to slow the number of Mexican migrants in the area.

Goldau said RCMP investigations have not yet identified a large-scale organized criminal element involved in smugglings into Canada, though Mounties and their partners are working on it.

“So far, our investigations have just pointed to local smaller groups that are essentially trying to help either people from their home country, or some kind of a family tie or a friendship kind of tie,” Goldau said. “We haven’t delved deep enough into that yet, to have those answers, to see what kind of bigger criminal footprint it may have.”

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca