Migrant bus is in Chicago, not heading to Canadian border
Canadian officials said they are preparing for an influx of border crossings should US President-elect Donald Trump follow through on promises to deport undocumented migrants en masse, but claims on social media that a photo shows people being shuttled across the countries' shared border in November 2024 are false. The picture is from Chicago more than two years ago.
"Buses are stopping at NYC shelters multiple times per day picking up migrants.... and driving them to Canada, in advance of the Trump migration crackdown," claims a November 11, 2024 X post.
The post includes an image of people disembarking from a charter bus. Additional accounts claiming that the photo depicted migrants being transported across the United States' northern border into Canada spread on Facebook.
President-elect Trump promised on the campaign trail that he would order mass deportations of undocumented migrants if he were to take office. After his victory in the US presidential election on November 5, Canadian officials expressed concern about a potential wave of asylum seekers who could attempt to enter the country if Trump carries out his proposals.
However, the image in the social media posts does not show migrants being preemptively bused from New York City to Canada before the start of Trump's term.
A reverse image search reveals the photo appeared in a September 2023 article from the local news outlet Block Club Chicago (archived here). The caption explains the picture shows migrants arriving at the Illinois city's Union Station in September 2022. A similar image with what appears to be the same bus and people appeared in a December 2022 article from Borderless magazine (archived here).
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police also told AFP in a November 22 email that it had not seen any changes in crossings at the border following the results of the US election.
Safe Third Country Agreement
The implication that migrants could easily enter Canada is misplaced. Debbie Rachlis, an immigration lawyer based in Toronto (archived here), explained that migrants leaving the United States to enter Canada would be denied entry unless they were accepted as tourists or had visas available to those from a limited number of countries (archived here).
"With very limited exceptions, people are not allowed to make asylum claims at the Canada-US land border," she said in an interview on November 20.
Under the US-Canada Safe Third Country Agreement (archived here), asylum or refugee applicants must submit a claim in the first country they enter and cannot apply in a second country at a border crossing. Rachlis said there are exceptions for people who have a close relative in Canada with official status as a citizen, permanent resident or visa holder.
Any immigration crackdown in the United States is likely to prompt more people to seek asylum at an official border crossing into Canada, but Rachlis said these applicants would be turned away under the agreement.
Some migrants previously took buses from New York City with assistance from the municipality to towns near the former unofficial border crossing into Quebec at Roxham Road, where some entered Canada illegally.
A loophole in the Safe Third Country Agreement allowed migrants who cross the border irregularly -- not at an official crossing -- to claim asylum once in Canada. This was frequently used by claimants who crossed at the unofficial Roxham Road nexus before the policy was updated in 2023 to apply to the entire border.
If migrants make an unauthorized border crossing and stay in Canada for more than 14 days, they may then fall outside the agreement and be permitted to make an asylum claim (archived here).
As public opinion in Canada towards immigration continues to shift, the Canadian government announced on November 13 that it would not immediately move forward with plans to regularize undocumented migrants.
Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation in Canada here.
