US Homeland Security says asylum seekers at Canada border have less time with lawyers as part of new security policies News
Makaristos, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
US Homeland Security says asylum seekers at Canada border have less time with lawyers as part of new security policies

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shared internal documents with CBS News on Tuesday concerning two incoming changes to border policies for the Canada-US border, which will aim to expedite the processing time on migrants’ applications for border officials. 

These changes include decreasing the time migrants are allowed with their lawyers from a minimum of 24 hours to a minimum of 4 hours. Migrants will now also be required to have their official documents ready for screening to see if they are subject to the 2002 Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) between Canada and the US. Before this update, migrants who were exempt from the STCA’s application could delay their screening to collect their supporting documents. 

The STCA allows Canada and the US to share the responsibility of processing refugee applications. According to the STCA, whichever country an applicant arrives in first is the country in which the applicant must apply for refugee status. 

In 2023, the STCA was updated to expand its effect to include migrants who enter the countries at any border entry, unofficial or official. This expansion targeted irregular border crossings Canada began to experience upon the closure of an official entry point, Roxham Road in Quebec. 

The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) revisited the constitutionality of the STCA in a 2023 decision where the plaintiff refugee applicants argued their rights protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms had been violated, particularly when one of the plaintiffs was subject to the STCA, returned to the US and detained. The SCC held the plaintiffs’ section 7 Charter rights had not been violated, but remitted the section 15 claim to the Federal Court. 

In regards to these incoming policy changes, DHS explained: 

DHS carefully reviewed its implementation of the Safe Third Country Agreement with Canada and concluded that it could streamline that process at the border without impacting noncitizens’ ability to have access to a full and fair procedure for determining a claim to asylum or equivalent temporary protection. 

DHS has confirmed these two policy changes will begin effect on August 14, 2024. DHS has yet to publish the internal documents or release any official statement on its website.

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