Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Ottawa will work with the incoming Trump administration on border security, following comments from the newly appointed U.S. “border czar,” who said illegal immigration at the countries’ shared border poses a “huge national security issue.”
LeBlanc said Ottawa shares the Americans’ concerns that the border can be a source of “potential violent extremists crossing from Canada into the United States, or vice versa.”
“We’ll reassure the American administration that we’re prepared to do the work that’s necessary,” LeBlanc said during a Nov. 17 interview on Global News’ The West Block.
Trump, who was president from 2016 to 2020, won the Nov. 5, 2024, election following a campaign that focused heavily on illegal immigration. He has promised to implement the “largest deportation operation in American history” when he takes office in January of 2025, going after what the Department of Homeland Security has estimated is 11 million illegal immigrants living in the country.
LeBlanc said he has had “reassuring” conversations on border security with the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency, during which he indicated Ottawa is open to increasing resources for border security if needed.
LeBlanc said while a global increase in migration had led to Canada and other countries to face illegal immigration challenges, the federal government has already increased resources to deal with them. He pointed to an estimated 15,000 deportations that were carried out in Canada in 2023, as well as a 600 percent increase in investigations by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada into fraudulent visa applications.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Canadians can be confident that the government has control of the 9,000-kilometre border.
