Refugee Claimants: Ronald Reagan and Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric

refugee claimants: 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, according to The Chronicle Herald. Only, Rivas' journey didn't happen in recent months, and the president whose policies he was fleeing was Ronald Reagan, not Trump. A week earlier, they'd decided to leave New York City amid worries the U.S. president's promise to crack down on illegal immigration would put them at risk of being deported back to wartorn El Salvador. 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. 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. 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. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.