B.C. is asking Ottawa for money to help local shelters that are preparing for a potential rise in undocumented migrants from the United States.
“We are seeing an increase in undocumented people crossing the border from the U.S. in our shelters because of the new (Donald) Trump regime,” Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon told Global News.
“I’m certainly concerned because the rhetoric we’re hearing from the federal government around shutdown on undocumented people, it will lead to people crossing the border to come to Canada. We’ve seen that historically.
“But we’re already starting to see numbers go up. And in the end of the day, these are human beings who need support.”
The House on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill that requires the detainment of unauthorized immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes, marking the first legislation that Trump can sign as Congress, with some bipartisan support, swiftly moved in line with his plans to crack down on illegal immigration.
“The federal government has a very important role,” Kahlon added. “In fact, this is the space the federal government needs to be in and I would say they need to do a little bit more to ensure communities have support.
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“We’ve seen recently dollars to go to Ontario, dollars go to Quebec, we haven’t seen those same number of dollars coming to British Columbia.”
Vancouver city councillor Mike Klassen told Global News he spoke at the Union of B.C. Municipalities conference in 2024 about the increase in asylum seekers coming to the Lower Mainland and that was before Trump’s recent re-election.
“It was a couple of years ago when I was visiting some of our shelters and asking them how things were going and then that’s when I learned that they were being overwhelmed by refugees that were coming straight off either through ports or through the airport and coming straight into our shelter system and overwhelming them,” he said.
Klassen said there has to be a coordinated response between the federal and provincial levels of government to work with cities and non-profit organizations now that Trump is once again president.
“We are really becoming overwhelmed in our cities,” he added.
“Our shelters are full. Up to 50 per cent of people at some of the shelters surveyed in the City of Vancouver are refugees right now. So that’s a huge number. And that’s a real warning for us to try to do something about it.”
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