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Comment by walrus01 | Hacker News Reader

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/se...

Wait. You don’t just walk across the border, you have to file an application and have it approved to live in Canada? Is this how a progressive nation should behave?

IIRC it's pretty common to walk across the border and then present yourself to immigration and ask for asylum. Assuming that is your only probable immigration method, since otherwise it's reputedly quite difficult to gain approval.

Also, Canada handles the whole process a bit more humanely than the United States does.

are hundreds/thousands of people trying to cross in to Canada everyday? Easy when its only a few people, harder when its not.

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/se...

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/asylum-applicatio...

It looks like it's actually pretty proportional. And based upon that data, thousands of people are NOT trying to cross into America via asylum seeking every day.

It's not a matter of "easy" or "hard", it's a matter of how much money you're willing to spend on processing asylum claims. Hiring more immigration lawyers, building more offices, hiring more officers for patrolling borders and ensuring seekers get across safely, and not wandering around kicking over water reservoirs[1].

Considering the US is spending $210 million[2] to lob gas canisters at a migrant caravan instead of processing their claims, I don't think it's a matter of not having enough cash.

also, Canada saw 25,000 asylum claims last year[3]

[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-border-...

[2] https://globalnews.ca/news/4684164/trump-border-troops-cost-...

[3] https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/se...

Yes. Look at Roxham Road.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/migrants-flood-canada-roxham-ro...

I guess that depends if you're a member of a desperate group of poor, or someone browsing Hacker News on a Monday morning.

This argument is not genuine. US has a legal immigration requiring much the same process as Canada. If you end up crossing into Canada outside of a port of entry, you can request asylum from the Canadian border patrol just like you can in the US.

Of course you can apply but does a random person living in the US has enough grounds to receive an asylum in Canada?

Possibly, but given the US's relative freedoms unlikely. Here's your criteria:

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/se...

If there's a risk to your life or to you being mistreated upon your return, then you may qualify.

I'm torn. On one hand I shouldn't feed the trolls, OTOH it sounds like you genuinely believe that "random people" from Central America are equivalent to the US.

Many Central American countries, including El Salvador, do not have the rule of law that we have in the US. They're overrun by gangs [1]. It is a legitimate claim to asylum. "a random person in the US" does not have this same claim, so, no, they do not have enough grounds.

The United States of America has historically been a bastion of freedom. It's no BS -- we need to live up to the inscription on the Statue of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore."

My ancestors (now me and my descendants), likely your ancestors, benefited from legal immigration and didn't even have an asylum claim. The 19th and 20th centuries also saw the demonization of various European immigrant groups. Don't buy the hype, your fortune/misfortune is not impacted by immigration. Globalization has had a WAY bigger impact and was/is inevitable.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_El_Salvador#Gang_invo...

> OTOH it sounds like you genuinely believe that "random people" from Central America are equivalent to the US

The main topic of the discussion is people leaving the US and the parent comment offers Canada as an option - what does Central America and their 'equivalency' has to do with all this?

if you're not being sarcastic, what are you proposing? that progressive nations shouldn't even keep records of who is living there?

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