Officials say the United States and Canada have agreed to reject asylum seekers at unofficial border crossings.
A large number of migrants have been crossing the US-Canada border illegally via Roxham Road.
The move closes a gap created by a 2004 asylum agreement with the US regarding where migrants must file asylum claims.
It allowed Canada to reject migrants at official entry points but not at unofficial crossing points.
According to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, Canada will now establish a new refugee program for 15,000 migrants fleeing persecution and violence in South and Central America as part of the agreement.
According to Reuters, the new agreement extends the asylum agreement along the entire 9,000km (6,000 mile) border and will take effect at midnight on Friday local time.
President Biden is in Ottawa, Canada, for 24 hours to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about a variety of economic, trade, and immigration issues.
On Friday, he will address parliament before the leaders hold a joint news conference.
For the presidential working visit, security is tight in Canada’s capital. Police cruisers and officers can be seen circling the area around parliament, and nearby streets have been closed to the public.
Flags of the United States fly along Wellington Street, which runs in front of the parliament buildings.
The migration agreement is expected to be formally announced before Mr Biden returns to the United States on Friday evening.
The number of migrants crossing into Canada from the United States has also increased. According to the agreement, officials on both sides of the border will be able to turn back asylum seekers traveling in either direction.
The move is part of an effort to limit the influx of migrants at Roxham Road, an unofficial border crossing between New York and Quebec.
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The agreement amends the two countries’ 2004 Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), which requires migrants to seek asylum in the first “safe” country they reach, whether the US or Canada.
The STCA authorizes US and Canadian officials to refuse asylum seekers in both directions at formal ports of entry, but it does not apply to unofficial crossings.
As a result, many migrants attempted to enter Canada at locations where there is no official border crossing. The new agreement would close that gap.
The deal is “not going to stop people”, Abdulla Daoud, executive director at The Refugee Centre in Montreal, told the BBC on Friday, adding he is concerned it could “incentivise human smuggling”.
“The figures are insufficient. We’ve had 40,000 people cross in the last year – 15,000 is a low number, and it’s only from one part of the world, the Western Hemisphere “He stated.
Last month, New York City officials announced that they would be providing free bus tickets for migrants to travel up to the US-Canada border.
According to reports, negotiations on a new US-Canada border agreement had been stalled for months. US officials reportedly refused to rework the agreement because the country was mired in its own migrant crisis at the US-Mexico border.
Mr. Biden’s administration has also proposed a crackdown on asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border by making it more difficult for migrants to claim asylum once Covid border controls are lifted in May. Human rights organizations have reacted negatively to the proposal.
Because it does not require the approval of the US Congress, the new US-Canada agreement could go into effect quickly.
Mr Trudeau has claimed that renegotiating the Safe Third Country Agreement is the only way to stop irregular border crossings at Roxham Road.