Roxham Road


Roxham Road was a Canadian port of entry that operated until the late 1950s, and is currently the site where more asylum seekers cross from the United States to Canada. In recent years, thousands of migrants have made unauthorized entry into Canada on foot at this location so they can request asylum. RCMP has established temporary facilities at this crossing to aid in processing the surge in asylum seekers.

History

The building on the Canadian side formerly used for border crossing officials, is now a private residence. The U.S. never had a border station at this location. This crossing has been barricaded since the 1970s in security operations supporting the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Asylum seekers

Crossing at Roxham Road is not illegal under Canadian law as "Our immigration law does not make it illegal to enter Canada using informal border crossings, as long as a person reports to border services without delay.". The reason so many people choose to cross here rather than at a legal port of entry is a loophole in the "Safe Third Country Agreement", signed by the United States and Canada in 2004, which requires that people seeking political asylum in either country must do so in the country where they arrived first. For those wishing to cross from the U.S. to Canada, at a port of entry, Canada Border Services Agency officials would follow Safe Third and in most cases send them back to the United States. Canadian police at Roxham Road however, arrest the asylum seekers and cannot send them back to the United States, whereby those crossing may claim asylum in Canada, and they, hope, eventual legal status in Canada.

Location

The unauthorized crossing point is located in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec on the Canadian side and near Perry Mills, Champlain, New York on the U.S. side. It is less than a thirty-minute taxi ride from Plattsburgh, New York where dedicated "border line taxis" wait at the bus station.