April 4, 2018, Ottawa, ON – Following media reports that at least 500 migrants illegally crossed the Lacolle border in Quebec over the Easter long-weekend, Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative Shadow Minister for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness and the Honourable Michelle Rempel, Conservative Shadow Minister for Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship today issued the following statement:

“Canada is an open and welcoming country. Canadians expect our immigration system to operate in an orderly, planned, and safe manner. Unfortunately, Justin Trudeau has failed to take appropriate steps to manage illegal border crossings since his irresponsible tweet in January 2017. The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) is again recording sharp increases in illegal migrant entries at unofficial entry points in Lacolle following 18,000 illegal crossings into Quebec in 2017. These illegal entries are overwhelming CBSA operations in Quebec, resulting in agents drastically cutting security processing activities from an average of eight hours to roughly two.

“Conservatives have repeatedly proposed that the Liberal government renegotiate the loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States. Our repeated requests have been ignored, and the Liberal government has refused to even broach the topic with the United States.

“Canada’s Conservatives once again call on Justin Trudeau to stand up for Canadians and take real action by closing the loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement.”