Refugee Claimants: Canadian Border and Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric

refugee claimants: Only, Rivas' journey didn't happen in recent months, and the president whose policies he was fleeing was Ronald Reagan, not Trump, according to Metro News. While the scenes playing out at the Canadian border have garnered worldwide attention, northward migration is hardly unprecedented, says an author and historian who has studied the issue. It's a story that has recently become familiar to Canadians as the country has seen a rise in the number of refugee claimants crossing its southern borders a phenomenon some have linked with rising anti-immigrant rhetoric and the election of U.S. President Donald Trump. There's a long history of people crossing the border fleeing U.S. policy and seeking refuge in Canada, whether you're looking at African-Americans fleeing slavery in the 19th century, draft dodgers in the 1960s and '70s, then refugees from Central America and other countries in the 1980s and '90s, John Rosinbum said in a phone interview. The move sent thousands of would-be refugees heading toward Canada, many of them originally from Central American countries such as Guatemala and El Salvador. In November 1986, exactly 30 years prior to Trump's election, Reagan signed the Immigration Reform Control Act, which stated that illegal immigrants who could not prove they had resided in the country for five years could be deported, and employers who hired them could be penalized. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.