On a country road near the Kenyan border town of Franklin, a five-metre long rusted steel rail marks the end of Canada and the beginning of America.
Crooked signs bolted to the rails threaten fines and jail time if violators cross the border into the United States, but many simply walk around the fence. has chosen to ignore this warning.
On a wet, snowy and rainy Tuesday night, a team of RCMP Border Enforcement Officers took CTV reporters on the ground to learn how mounted troops are working to stop illegal border crossings at these unprotected points of entry. He demonstrated what he was working on.
“This is a game of cat and mouse,” said the corporal. Samuel Perrault-Manni was shining a flashlight looking for suspicious footprints in the snow. “I recognize these footsteps. They belonged to the cops and dog cops last night. They were looking for their family.”
A stuffed kitten was lying in the middle of the road as evidence that the immigrants had traveled that route. The day before, the family had crossed a belt of forest with a small child in tow. Mounties arrested the migrants and turned them over to Canada Border Force to determine whether they should be returned to the United States.
Corporal Samuel Perrault-Magney of the Quebec RCMP Integrated Border Enforcement Team searches for suspicious footprints in an area near the U.S. border.
smuggling network
Perrault-Magney did not provide details about where or how the family was captured, but said the RCMP has access to a wide range of resources to patrol the 815-kilometre border between Quebec and the United States.
The cavalry patrols the border using helicopters, reconnaissance planes, and patrol boats on the St. Lawrence River. Police officers equipped with night vision equipment are stationed in trees used for hunting, monitoring the horizon. They patrol in skidus and drive four-seater all-terrain vehicles called “Argos.”
Dozens of surveillance cameras are also strategically hidden in the deep forest.
Corporal Perrault Magney noted that migrants are sometimes guided through the forest by guides or “coyotes.” Once on the Canadian side, a driver will wait for them and take them to Toronto or Montreal.
A 2023 Canada Border Services Agency intelligence report revealed that smugglers were charging as much as $45,000 to help sneak into Canada.
The Quebec RCMP Integrated Border Enforcement Team prepares to drive an “Argo” through the woods to search for migrants and smugglers.
change of tactics
Richard Kurland, a Vancouver immigration lawyer and analyst, obtained the confidential documents through a Freedom of Information request. Kurland said these exorbitant fees may also be funding terrorism.
“Terrorist groups use illegal smuggling as part of their financing operations to do bad things. Therefore, we are working to reduce that revenue and fight smuggling organizations that operate literally on both sides of the border. We have to work together with (the Americans) on this,” Kurland said.
The high prices set by smugglers are also changing the way migrants cross borders. CTV spoke to two residents. One is American and the other Canadian, living in two separate countries just a stone’s throw from each other across the border.
Both homeowners said they saw the migrants run off the road, through fields and very close to a metal fence, then abandon their idling cars and flee. In many cases, you will need to call a tow truck to remove your vehicle.
“I think it’s cheaper to rent or buy a car than to pay a passeur (smuggler),” said Louise Gobeille, a Quebec resident who has lived just steps from the border for 30 years. says.
online advice
Over the years, Gobeil has seen different groups of migrants pass through, depending on the geopolitical crisis of the moment. She has seen Muslims cross the border in the aftermath of Syria’s civil war and Haitians flee after gangs took over their country.
Just recently, she saw a video posted on social media of the road in front of her home. The post is about illegal immigration to Canada and signals that the region will soon become an even hotspot for migrants passing through as the political winds shift again.
Originally from Quebec, Louise Gobeille lives right on the U.S. border.
Gobeil said 90 percent of the migrants she sees typically head south, but she’s noticed that trend reversing since President Donald Trump’s election.
Corporal Perot-Mani says he’s concerned that people forced out by President Trump will try to flee to the border during the winter.
Earlier this month, Perrault-Many oversaw the arrest of the parents of a three-week-old infant.
“We hear heartbreaking stories…sometimes there is a lot of violence in their country and they are looking for a better country,” said the corporal, who recently returned from maternity leave. “They are looking to Canada for help, but there are ways for them to enter the country legally.”
“We’re asking people not to cross in the middle of the night, especially with young children. It’s not a road through the woods.”
‘Overwhelmed’ northern border
Trump has promised to deport an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants if he takes office within a month.
A CBSA report warned more than a year before President Trump’s election that the border had become a “bilateral irritant.”
Tom Holman, President Trump’s nominee for border czar, has used harsher language about the northern border. He called it a “major national security issue” and said officials at the Canada-U.S. border are “overwhelmed.”
And while crossings at the northern border are tiny compared to what’s happening at America’s southern border, Mexico has been able to reduce the numbers while the problem is growing in the north.
More than 19,000 immigrants entered the country illegally from Canada between January and September of this year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. This is almost twice as high as in 2023, with the last quarter not yet tallied.
Perot-Many said the Mounties have and continue to assist U.S. Border Patrol agents in apprehending immigrants.
On Monday, another family of three was discovered by Mounties patrolling the logging border between the countries, known as the “slash.” Officers alerted U.S. Border Patrol agents to arrest the family after they crossed the border.
Deja vu at Roxham Lord?
of RCMP is taking the impact of President Trump’s deportation threat seriously and says it has emergency plans to deal with a potential surge. This includes the potential redeployment of police officers to border units, and even the construction of temporary structures to house people, as was previously done on Wroxham Road.
Last year, the governments of Canada and the United States amended the Safe Third Country Agreement to force people seeking asylum to apply in the country of their first arrival. This was an attempt to stop people from trekking to Roxham Road, a rural stretch of Quebec that gained international notoriety as an unofficial crossing point.
Before Wroxham Road was closed in March 2023, more than 39,500 people entered Canada on foot to apply for asylum in 2022, the RCMP said.
Quebec once accounted for 90 per cent of illegal immigrants, but this year the number of immigrants has dropped significantly to about 600. However, there is still the possibility that a surge beyond what happened in Wroxham could occur elsewhere in the forest.
