US and Canada reach deal to reject asylum seekers

The United States has announced that it will fast-track appeals of asylum claims at a new temporary facility in upstate New York as part of an effort to limit an increasing surge of border crossings between New York and Quebec. The US will use a former prison in Conneautville, Pennsylvania as the detention center.

This comes in response to the latest numbers from the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that reveal more people are crossing illegally from Canada into the United States. Figures from the first seven months of 2018 show that around 4,316 individuals were apprehended by patrols across northern stretches of the US border, an increase of around 160% compared to the same period in 2017.

The use of the former prison and fast-tracked claim reviews have caused concerns from immigrant rights groups who say that asylum seekers should not be detained, and their rights should be protected. They argue it’s not fair to be detained in a prison without conviction or being declared guilty of any crime. Meanwhile, US immigration and law enforcement officials have warned that these illegal crossings are being used as an opportunity by people smuggling networks to take advantage of people who want to cross the border.

This is not the first time the US has tried to control illegal immigration. The Trump Administration has already implemented many controversial immigration policies, most notably the zero-tolerance policy, which saw children separated from their parents at the border and detained in separate camps. This sparked widespread criticism, which has continued until current time. Recently, several major airlines refused to fly immigrant children separated by the Trump administration back to their countries of origin, and Public support has seen the stock of the company Granite REIT, which owns several of these detention centers, fall sharply.

The use of a former prison for detention raises questions as to why other detention centers can’t be used. Immigration officials have pointed out that although the Asylum Reform Act requires that asylum claims are processed within 180 days of application, current proceedings can take over a year. If the new procedures are successful, the asylum claims of detainees will be processed more quickly and they will be returned home if found ineligible, rather than waiting in a facility like this one.



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