(Spanish CNN) — Canada and the United States share a border of almost 9,000 km which rose to prominence in 2017 following Donald Trump’s arrival in the White House and, recently, with the record number of migrants seeking to cross it in search of better asylum opportunities.

How does migration between these two countries work? Here, a look at the movement of people that occurs across a border marked by rivers and mountains.

History of asylum applications

Although the number of asylum seekers at the southern border of the United States is much higher, the northern border – with Canada – has seen record numbers in recent years which have overloaded the system, particularly at a border point. unofficial that connects New York to Quebec. , and that it was closed in mid-March.

The Government of Canada has documented a record 3,901 unauthorized immigrant entries into Quebec in 2022, almost all through Roxham Road, a border crossing that, due to a legal loophole, allowed immigrants to seek asylum in Canada.

In January 2023 alone, which is the last month recorded, the data exceeded last year’s figures: 4,875 asylum seekers crossed illegally, also more than double the number recorded in the same period. last year.

After the United States, Canada is the second country in the North American region where the most international migrants arrive: they are 8 million, according to a report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) from 2022, with data from 2020. In perspective, in the United States there are more than 50 million international immigrants and in Mexico just over 1 million.

roxham road

For decades, refugee claims could be made at any legal port of entry into Canada, where they were then processed and the claimants admitted, if their claims were approved. This changed in 2004 with the implementation of the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), an immigration convention that requires people to seek asylum in the first safe country they arrive in (in this case, the United States).

However, a loophole in that agreement allowed, until recently, thousands of migrants to cross illegally from the United States to Canada via Roxham Road, a remote highway that since 2017, it has attracted thousands of people seeking better asylum opportunities.

After entering the southern border of the United States, many of these immigrants made their way to New York. From there they headed upstate and traveled along Roxham Road, which ends in the province of Quebec.

Although this border point is not allowed to cross, there is a post where officers informed immigrants of their rights and warned them that they would be arrested for entering the country illegally, a process that usually ends by their release to seek asylum in Canada.

But as of mid-March, Canadian border officials stopped accepting asylum applications from migrants attempting to cross on Roxham Road, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and US President Joe Biden recently outlined changes to the STCA, in particular the closure of this unauthorized border point.

Priscilla Alvarez, Phil Mattingly, Polo Sandoval, Gustavo Valdes and CNN’s Catherine E. Shoichet contributed to this report.