The Trudeau Liberals have reportedly made an agreement with the US that will see the closure of the Roxham Road illegal border crossing point — so long as Canada takes an agreed-upon number of migrants off of America’s hands.

Currently, an estimated 150 asylum seekers are illegally crossing into Canada daily at Roxham Road in Quebec, where they walk over from upstate New York. According to government data, the RCMP intercepted 39,171 asylum seekers in Quebec in 2022, compared with 369 in the rest of the country. 

New York City mayor Eric Adams admitted to distributing bus tickets to Plattsburgh, NY to migrants in his city so they can leave America and illegally enter Canada via Roxham Road. After the migrants arrive in Plattsburgh, it is about a 30-minute cab ride to the border.

On Thursday, Radio-Canada reported that Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly and Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Sean Fraser worked with their American counterparts on renegotiating the Safe Third Country Agreement. 

As part of the deal, Trudeau has agreed to let in a “certain number of migrants through official channels.”

Asylum shoppers crossing into Canada have strained the communities they arrive in. Quebec is spending $20 million per month on welfare cheques for these asylum seekers, who until recently mostly ended up in Montreal. Social service agencies such as shelters and food banks in Montreal have spoken out about being overwhelmed.

However, Quebec premier François Legault pressured Trudeau to send the asylum seekers elsewhere, so the federal government started busing the migrants to Ontario. 

The mayors of Niagara Falls, ON and Cornwall, ON accepted 3,000 and 1,400 relocated asylum seekers, respectively, but then began complaining that they needed more money from the federal government to pay for the food and shelter of these migrants. 

The feds then started sending migrants to the Maritimes.

More details are expected in the coming days on this reported agreement.