A new border agreement between the United States and Canada has been implemented to stop the flow of asylum seekers at unofficial border crossings.
Now, anyone caught crossing the 3,145-mile (5,060-kilometer) border can be sent back.
Roxham Road has been the route of a significant number of illegal crossings at the US-Canadian border.
The new accord shuts a proviso that permitted transients to guarantee refuge at such informal ports of passage.
The news came as President Joe Biden was in Ottawa, Canada, to meet with his Canadian counterpart, Justin Trudeau, to talk about a variety of economic, trade, and immigration issues.
The agreement is part of an effort to control the number of migrants arriving at Roxham Road, an unofficial border crossing between New York State and Quebec.
The majority of the 40,000 migrants who entered Canada through Roxham Road last year set a new record.
The prime minister's office (PMO) stated that as part of the agreement, Canada will also establish a brand-new refugee program for 15,000 migrants fleeing persecution and violence in South and Central America.
The Safe Third Country Act (STCA) of 2004 mandates that migrants apply for asylum in the first "safe" nation they reach, which can be the United States or Canada.
It permitted either country to dismiss transients at true marks of passage - however not at informal intersection focuses, as Roxham Street.
The prime minister's office released a statement stating that the new agreement extends the agreement across the entire border, including internal waterways. Advocates for refugees have said that the new deal won't work to stop migrants crossing the border illegally into Canada.
The executive director of The Refugee Centre in Montreal, Abdulla Daoud, told the BBC on Friday that while it won't stop people, he is concerned that it might encourage human smuggling.
He stated the following regarding the new refugee program: The numbers are insufficient. Only 15,000 of them came from one region of the world—the Western hemisphere—and we only had 40,000 cross in the past year. "While the president was in Canada, he talked about how important the deep economic ties, defense alliances, and shared support for Ukraine were.
In order to lessen their reliance on China for semiconductors and the essential minerals required to manufacture batteries and electric cars, the two leaders pledged to work together against authoritarian regimes.
The ongoing instability in Haiti, where gang violence and kidnappings have skyrocketed and the economy is in crisis, was also brought up.
Canada has been pressured by the United States to lead a multinational force that will assist Caribbean security forces.
However, on Friday, both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trudeau stated that they did not consider intervention to be the best course of action at this time.
During a joint press conference, Mr. Biden stated, "The biggest thing we can do, and it's going to take time, is to increase the prospect that the police department in Haiti has the capacity to deal with the problems."
He went on to say that the instability "is a real, genuine concern" because ongoing gang violence could force many Haitians to flee their homes.