The United States President, Joe Biden has arrived in Canada where he would meet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and address parliament, with reports that a deal has been struck on managing undocumented migration across the neighbors’ long border.
Trade, Canada’s anemic defense spending, and a potential international force to stabilize troubled Haiti are expected to be on the agenda in the events set largely for today.
As Biden flew north, there were reports that another hot-button issue in the otherwise smooth relationship had been resolved through a deal to clamp down on undocumented migration by asylum seekers passing through the United States into Canada.
According to reports, Canada will be able to stop illegal migrants at the Roxham Road crossing point on the frontier between New York state and Quebec. The reports said that Canada has agreed in return to take in some 15,000 asylum seekers from Latin America through legal channels, a move that will ease the pressure on the southern US border.
But as Biden and his wife First Lady Jill Biden arrived at Trudeau’s home yesterday evening for dinner, the president declined to answer a reporter’s question on the deal.