Since its inception in 2004, the legitimacy of the Safe Third Country Agreement has always been predicated on the convenient fiction that the United States offers refugee claimants the same protections as Canada provides to asylum seekers who arrive in this country.
Even before Donald Trump became U.S. President for the first time in 2016, concerns about the treatment of those who claim refugee status in the U.S. cast long shadows over the bilateral agreement under which Canada turns back most asylum seekers from third countries who try to enter this country at the U.S. border. Successive governments in Ottawa have largely glossed over those concerns, reasoning that the U.S. refugee system, while imperfect, met minimum standards set out in international conventions.
Oh No! Bad Man Trump secures the US border & deports illegals to protect Americans? How awful! You shamelessly shill for a paper that trumpets the import of cheap foreign labour making domestic economic refugees of your fellow citizens. Your luxury values amount to elite theft.
— Blazingcatfur (@fancypants_s) December 5, 2025
