What was usually the first trip abroad by a United States president to Joe Biden has taken him more than two years to pay a visit to Canada.
Biden landed in Ottawa late Thursday for a 24-hour visit filled with pomp and congratulations, issues aside. So this Friday he became the fifth US president to address the Canadian Parliament.
The White House stressed that this delay does not prevent Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from forging a close relationship, almost father and son or mentor and student. Trudeau is the world leader with whom Biden has spoken the most on the phone and they have met at international events while in power. "There is good chemistry between them," they said from the White House. And they saw this opportunity as more than necessary to put a stop to the diplomatic mess between the two neighbors that occurred with the government of Donald Trump.
“We have been working together these last few years (…) and we have no better friend and ally than the United States,” said the host, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, at the beginning of the meeting with Biden.
"I always say that we are lucky because to the north we have Canada, with which we share values," replied the guest. “Sometimes we disagree on things, but there is no fundamental difference in democratic values,” he continued.
Despite the fact that there are thorny issues pending, such as the US request that Canada contribute more to NATO (it is an echo of Trump) and that the Russian war in Ukraine or the challenge of China cloud the panorama, the handshake of Ottawa served to announce an agreement on the issue that was causing the most sour relations between the two countries: the transit of undocumented immigrants from the US to Canada.
The matter had become complicated after the mayor of New York, Eric Adams, faced with the avalanche of buses with asylum seekers sent to him from Texas and Arizona, had made it easier for immigrants to go north and access without papers in Canada via the popular unofficial Roxham Road pass.
Some 40,000 immigrants crossed into Canada in 2022, double the number in 2019. But the number has increased this year, with 5,000 people entering the northern territory in January alone.
The agreement reached makes it easier for both nations to divert asylum seekers. The agreement will allow Canada to turn away immigrants passing through Roxham. In return, he will agree to expand his legal refuge program to up to 15,000 immigrants fleeing violence, persecution and economic devastation in Central and South America.
This will allow pressure to be reduced in the United States due to the entry of people without documents through the Mexican border, one of the issues with which the Republicans do not stop harassing the White House.
Although it removes the biggest hurdle between Ottawa and Washington, this deal angered immigrant advocacy groups already frustrated with Biden's decision to crack down on asylum seekers at the southern border. Many equate his policy to that applied by his predecessor to return these people to Mexico.
Trudeau was determined to expand the treaty with the US Canada is famous for being more welcoming than other Western countries. But its citizens began to express reluctance for such hospitality.
