The US also has a problem on its northern border

Since the 1970s, Canada has built a reputation as one of the world’s most liberal immigration systems, with a strong emphasis on diversity. But the country’s unique, decades-long immigration consensus is being eroded. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s open-border approach has allowed unchecked immigration at the expense of economic stability, social inclusion and national security.

Acting on a tip from a European ally, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police recently arrested an ISIS-inspired father-son duo for allegedly plotting a mass attack in Toronto. Under the auspices of the Trudeau government, the father was allowed into Canada on a path to citizenship, despite the fact that he reportedly appeared in an open-source ISIS propaganda video in which he is seen dismembering a prisoner with a sword.

Terrorists and criminals have long sought ways to abuse Canada’s liberal immigration system and gain Canadian citizenship. The Canada Border Service Agency is tasked with removing inadmissible aliens, but has struggled to track down and deport those with serious criminal offenses.

A recent audit of the Canada Border Service Agency found that most of the agency’s investigators lack basic training. A 2023 federal government audit found that between 2014 and 2019, Ottawa admitted 3,314 foreigners charged with serious crimes, including war crimes and terrorism.

Citing an internal cover-up of a human smuggling operation through Quebec as an example, a whistleblower at the Canada Border Service Agency recently alleged that transnational criminal elements had infiltrated the agency and compromised its databases to help terrorists, spies and drug cartels enter Canada. This adds to widespread concerns about the infiltration of Canada’s federal civil service by foreign agents sympathetic to hostile powers seeking to effect well-documented foreign interference in the country’s democratic institutions.

With the Trudeau government’s immigration boom, severely understaffed federal security services are struggling to thoroughly screen new arrivals. Immigration Minister Marc Miller even admitted that Canada routinely admits people from countries that provide “unreliable” police certificates for security screening.

In any case, the Trudeau government has authorized the admission of 5,000 Palestinians from Gaza to Canada. It is believed that around 1,000 have already arrived. A senior Israeli government source, who asked not to be named, told me that they had “clear security concerns about Canada taking people out of Gaza.”

Christian Leuprecht, a professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and senior fellow at the Center for North American Prosperity and Security, has similar concerns.

“Given that the Canadian government unhesitatingly admits large groups of people from areas of the world such as Gaza, where political violence is a regular part of the daily modus operandi, there is necessarily a greater risk of spillover effects of violent anti-Israel behaviour or latent sympathies for designated terrorist entities.”

The Trudeau government has allowed support for Hamas and the October 7 atrocities among select ethno-religious groups, along with deep-seated anti-Semitic and anti-American sentiments, to fester. It also has a track record of basing immigration and national security decisions on diaspora politics rather than security and national interest. In 2016, the government lifted visa requirements for Mexican citizens, against the advice of Canadian officials. Predictably, frivolous asylum claims increased, but it took eight years for visa requirements to be reinstated.

Given the pervasive vulnerabilities in Canada’s immigration system, the decision to admit Palestinians exacerbates the increasingly risky risk the Trudeau government is willing to take by politicizing immigration and refugee resettlement, at the expense of Canada’s longstanding commitment to continental security and social harmony.

Recent arrests of suspected Palestinian terrorists at America’s southern border confirm intelligence reports that malicious actors from the war-torn region have crossed into the US.

This has not gone unnoticed by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). In late July, on the occasion of a bill in Congress to overhaul security along America’s northern border in light of an escalation of irregular border crossings southward into Canada, Rubio wrote a letter noting the move to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

The Trudeau government’s tolerance for rising anti-Semitism and Islamic radicalization, coupled with its questionable record on immigration policy and screening programs, should give Washington pause for thought. As the Biden administration continues to manage the migrant crisis at the southern border and the growing threats from emerging terrorist groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda, it must demand greater accountability and action from its counterparts to the north to preserve and protect both countries’ long-term security interests.

Joe Adam George is a national security analyst covering Middle East and South Asian affairs. He writes for the Center for North American Prosperity and Security.