The Trump administration’s claims that Canada’s border is a nationwide safety menace don’t stand as much as scrutiny, based on an inside authorities report obtained by International Information.
Responding to claims by Republican politicians that lots of of suspected terrorists cross illegally into the U.S. from Canada, the report countered that such incidents have been “restricted.”
Republican members of Congress have described Canada as “a serious menace,” claiming the “porous northern border” was a disaster that wanted to be addressed by means of laws.
“The precise statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Safety, nevertheless, don’t help these claims,” the Canadian authorities’s Built-in Terrorism Evaluation Centre wrote.
Marked “Secret/Canadian Eyes Solely,” the report was written per week after President Donald Trump was sworn into workplace. A duplicate was launched to International Information beneath the Entry to Data Act.
Prime Minister Mark Carney visited the White Home on Tuesday amid a commerce battle initiated by Trump, which he has justified partly by citing the stream of unlawful migrants and fentanyl from Canada.
Professional-Trump lawmakers signed a statement final 12 months claiming the Biden administration’s “neglect” of the northern border had left the U.S. susceptible to an “unprecedented surge” of unlawful migrants crossing from Canada, amongst them “identified terrorists.”
“Media have reported that politicians within the U.S. have expressed considerations in relation to the Canadian border,” stated the report, which described itself as a “reality examine” of American statements.
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“Additional, the brand new U.S. president has threatened to impose a steep tariff on imports from Canada as of 1 February 2025, citing considerations that embody unlawful migration.”
“Media reporting additionally particularly signifies irregular crossings (i.e. those that cross between factors of entry) are dramatically growing with ‘lots of of terror suspects’ being arrested.”
However the Canadian report stated that since 2022, solely six suspects flagged by the U.S. Terrorist Screening Information Set, or TSDS, had tried to make their means south between border posts, the report stated.
“Irregular entries alongside the northern border stay a fraction of comparable entries seen on the U.S. southern border,” it stated. “Additional, of such entries, there are extraordinarily few identified cases of somebody holding a U.S. TSDS report.”
At border crossing services, 358 folks on the TSDS listing tried to enter the U.S. from Canada final 12 months, in contrast with 484 in 2023 and 313 in 2022.
However these numbers have steadily declined as a proportion of the entire quantity of travellers, the report stated.
Even these on the watchlist weren’t essentially harmful, for the reason that TSDS “contains a wide range of people, not simply these deemed to be present and credible threats to nationwide safety,” it stated.
“It additionally contains these affiliated with such people in addition to people requiring additional investigation.”
The report additionally stated that extremists crossed borders for causes apart from finishing up assaults.
“Some Canadians have sought to journey to the U.S. with a purpose to attend occasions (extremist-affiliated or co-opted), doubtless searching for to forge stronger ties with like-minded people,” ITAC wrote.
It cited the instance of Energetic Membership white nationalists who use health and martial arts to draw followers, and see themselves as fighters coaching to tackle “a system that they declare is intentionally plotting towards the white race.”
“Whereas journey isn’t essentially linked to violent extremism, such journey by those that have interaction in extremist actions can enable them to bolster networks, share info, and strengthen capabilities, all of which may in the end result in violence,” it stated.
However the journey goes each methods.
In January, Canadian immigration officers arrested an American convicted over his function within the Jan. 6, 2021, revolt on the U.S. Capitol constructing in Washington, D.C.
He was later pardoned by Trump, together with about 1,500 others the report known as “extremists, conspiracy theorists and militia members” satisfied by false claims the 2020 election was stolen.
Different latest examples embody Patrick Matthews, a Manitoba neo-Nazi arrested in Delaware in 2020.
On July 28, 2024, the RCMP arrested Ahmed Eldidi and his son Mostafa in Toronto for allegedly planning an ISIS assault. Mostafa had entered Canada from Iowa, the place he was a pupil.
The RCMP arrested Pakistani citizen Muhammad Shahzeb Khan in Quebec on Sept. 4 as he was allegedly on his approach to New York to conduct an ISIS mass taking pictures at a Jewish centre.
The U.S. announced in December that it had deported a Jordanian with “ties to terrorism,” after he illegally crossed the border from Canada. However he had truly entered Canada from the U.S. in 2017.
© 2025 International Information, a division of Corus Leisure Inc.
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