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Richard Huntley spent many years implementing Canada’s border. He says we have now a rep for ‘being very beneficiant … that’s going to be an issue’
Printed Dec 01, 2024 • Final up to date 53 minutes in the past • 5 minute learn
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Richard Huntley, a retired Canadian Border Providers Company (CBSA) investigator in Calgary. Picture by Courtesy Richard Huntley
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Donald Trump pitched a tough curveball into commerce relations this week, proposing a 25-per-cent tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico till the movement of unlawful medication and migrants into America is staunched. Approaching the heels of his marketing campaign promise to deport tens of millions of unlawful immigrants, border points might be arguably probably the most consequential file for his second presidency.
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Whereas commerce negotiators scramble to design a plan to answer Trump’s tariff menace, I reached out to Richard Huntley — a onetime senior Canadian Border Providers Company (CBSA) official in Calgary who is aware of these things inside and outside — to find out how Canada is positioned to deal with a surge of individuals fleeing Trump’s anticipated deportation orders.
“I understand Trump is already talking about building — basically concentration camps and huge detention centres,” Richard experiences. “And people are just going to run. They’re just going to run,” he predicts.
“Look at the movies … where do the bad guys go when they’re trying to get away?” Richard asks. “They come to either Mexico or Canada.”
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He ought to know: Richard, now 68, spent 33 years implementing Canada’s border safety and immigration guidelines, together with 20 years accountable for CBSA’s inland immigration enforcement in southern Alberta.
Canada’s border with america is the longest undefended border on the earth. Richard isn’t assured our nation’s federal border safety equipment (the RCMP and CBSA, supported by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada and the Canadian Safety Intelligence Service) is ready for a deluge of asylum seekers from the U.S.
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Ten thousand illegals displaying up at our borders “would throw our system completely off kilter,” he warns. CBSA remains to be coping with the aftermath of 492 Sri Lankan Tamils arriving in British Columbia on a Thai cargo ship in 2010, he groans.
The Trudeau authorities touts itself as a world chief in refugee resettlement and immigration, solely lately scaling again its bold plan to welcome 500,000 immigrants every year by 2025. And whereas Immigration Minister Marc Miller cautions “not everyone is welcome here” — and guarantees he’ll implement the principles — it’s tough to color over Canada’s well-established popularity as a rustic that rolls out the pink carpet to asylum seekers. Every year, 1000’s of migrants enter Canada, with out authorization, between official ports of entry.
“So this immigration minister is saying not everybody’s welcome but you know we’ve clearly got a reputation as being soft, and different than the United States,” Richard suggests. We have now a popularity for being very beneficiant. “Let’s put it that way,” Richard chuckles, “very, very generous.” And, he expects, “that’s going to be a problem.”
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These individuals fleeing deportation are determined, Richard says. “I mean, some of them have come all the way from Africa, from Central America, walked into the States, all the way to Canada.” Their lives have been uprooted, and in case you put your self of their sneakers for 5 minutes, he says, it’s unattainable to not be sympathetic. “I always treated everybody with respect and I didn’t blame anybody for trying to come into this country, because this is a great country,” Richard displays. I can hear the emotion in his voice. “Why wouldn’t you try?” he asks.
“Coyotes, or smugglers, are going to be in big demand,” Richard predicts. “All organized crime knows that there’s big money to be made — even with less chance of being caught than doing drugs or smuggling diamonds or pornography, or whatever. There’s big money in it and it’s very seldom you catch the coyote. Because they’re just coming up to the border and pointing the people in the direction of Canada and saying, ‘That’s where you’re going.’”
Richard Huntley, a retired Canadian Border Providers Company (CBSA) investigator in Calgary. Picture by Courtesy Richard Huntley
He additionally predicts undocumented immigrants making an attempt to evade Trump’s deportation order might be tempted to leap the border at some place between official ports of entry. “And God help us if this all starts happening in January and February,” he swears, “because we’re not the nicest country for climate in those days.” Richard has seen individuals lose limbs and virtually freeze to demise in these border crossings. The current trial of two males in Minnesota — discovered responsible of smuggling 11 Indian nationals throughout the border from Emerson, Man., in a blizzard in 2022 (together with the Patel household of 4, who died of hypothermia) drives Richard’s level residence.
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“My wife is from Cornwall,” Richard continues, “which is a border city, between almost three borders: Quebec, Ontario, and the United States. When you see the St. Lawrence, basically, that’s the river and that’s the border. People go back and forth like you wouldn’t believe.” It’s just a little harder on the prairies, he says, however individuals get to know the entry factors between official ports of entry. There’s one in southern Alberta referred to as “Immigrant Gap,” he provides.
The U.S. border patrol has drones, armed automobiles. On our facet of the border, Richard laments, “we’re got one or two Mounties roaming around every so often, especially out West here. They’re totally ineffective to stop something like this.” It’s price noting; in response to Trump’s current tariff menace, Public Security Minister Dominic LeBlanc supplied assurances Ottawa is evaluating supplying the RCMP and CBSA with extra assets — together with individuals, drones and helicopters.
In his time, Richard experiences, the provinces would maintain immigration detainees whereas they went by the refugee course of. However now, he says, we’ve acquired nowhere to place detainees; the one locations which have immigration detention centres are Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. And if the individuals who bounce the border aren’t discovered to be refugees, Canada can’t simply ship them again to the U.S. As an alternative, Richard says, we’re obligated to return them to their nation of origin, which could be costly. “Very occasionally, we’d have to charter a plane because somebody would be too dangerous to fly on a commercial flight,” he recollects.
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As soon as in Canada, Richard explains, some illegals can find yourself in limbo. “Like Cubans, for example,” he says. “Cuba refuses to take any Cubans back. So they’re all here. They’re just roaming around. They don’t have any status … But we can’t remove them because the home country won’t take them back.”
And, he continues, “a refugee system where you can’t deal with someone’s claim in an expeditious manner just leads to problems down the road. Huge problems, because they become your neighbours, they have kids, they get married, do you know what I mean? It’s impossible to deal with people that have been here for five years or more.”
You could cope with these individuals inside months, Richard suggests, and meaning Ottawa wants to rent way more immigration judges to course of asylum claims. The system is overloaded now, Richard says; God assist us if the numbers develop.
“I’d say 10,000 people would throw us into a super huge mess,” he concludes.
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