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The number of US citizens seeking asylum in Canada is rising sharply, according to data from the Canadian government.
In 2017, about 2,550 Americans sought refuge in Canada, six times more than the year before, the Guardian reported. The Hill said it was the highest number of US citizens seeking asylum in Canada since 1994, when Citizenship and Immigration Canada started keeping up with it.
Americans were the third largest group of asylum seekers after Haitians and Nigerians.
The increase comes at a time when President Donald Trump is attacking immigration in different ways in the United States.
A large number of US citizens claiming asylum in Canada are children of immigrant parents who fear being deported from the United States because they do not have identity documents, The Guardian said.
"Most Americans who apply for refugee status are children of non-residents," Guardian Stephane Handfield, a lawyer specializing in immigration law in Montreal, told The Guardian. "They are American citizens because they were born there, but they cross the border with their parents because they do not want to be separated."
Some families chose Canada because of a January issue of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's message on social media, which seemed to invite immigrants to the country. Trudeau said Canada welcomed "those fleeing persecution, terror and war" at about the same time that Trump was hardening his stance on immigrants to the United States, seemingly distinguishing those who came from Muslim-majority countries.
Earlier this year, Trump decided to end the temporary protection status (SPT) of more than 300,000 migrants from Haiti, El Salvador, Honduras and Sudan. A federal judge blocked this effort last month.
Also last month, Trump announced he would sign an end-of-citizenship decree, giving citizenship to anyone born in the United States, regardless of the status of the mother. Many legal experts have stated that the change would be unconstitutional.
For those seeking asylum in Canada, the road is still not easy. Last year, about 1 Haitian seeking refuge got asylum, The Guardian said.
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