Trudeau calls Trump's child separation policy 'wrong' as president signals about-face

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today the Trump administration's policy of separating illegal migrants from their children is "wrong," just hours before the U.S. president signalled he's prepared to change course and end the practice.

As global outrage mounts over the policy that has led to the detention of more than 2,000 children as their parents are criminally charged, Donald Trump said today he will now sign an executive order to keep families together. 

"I'm going to be signing an executive order in a little while before I go to Minnesota but, at the same time, I think you have to understand, we're keeping families together but we have to keep our borders strong," he said. "We will be overrun with crime and with people that should not be in our country."

Earlier today, Trudeau criticized the detention policy.

"What's going on in the United States is wrong," Trudeau said in brief remarks to reporters Wednesday in Ottawa. "I can't imagine what the families living through this are enduring. Obviously, this is not the way we do things in Canada."

It was Trudeau's first direct criticism of Trump's policy directive. When pressed by the NDP earlier this week, the prime minister called on the opposition to stop playing politics with the issue.

Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said again today that the government is monitoring the impact of the child separation policy, but also criticized the practice.

"It's plainly wrong," he said.

Hussen has said that both Canada and the U.S., along with the UN's refugee agency, are conducting ongoing analysis of the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), a Canada/U.S. pact meant to stem the flow of illegal migration across the joint border. He said he could not provide any time frame for the review.

In past, the minister has said the 14-year-old agreement — which requires that migrants crossing the Canada/U.S. border make their refugee claims in the first "safe" country they come to, whether it's Canada or the U.S. — is working in Canada's interests but should be modernized.

According to data provided to CBC News by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, 1,949 asylum seekers were turned back at official border points in 2017 — were refused entry to Canada under the STCA.

That's up dramatically from previous years. In 2016, 731 were refused; in 2015, 418 were turned away and in 2014 just 456 were denied entry.

'Baby-snatching'

The family separations began earlier this year after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new "zero tolerance" policy of referring those crossing the border illegally for federal criminal prosecution — which results in children being separated from their parents.

The policy has renewed calls from human rights groups, refugee lawyers and the NDP to suspend the STCA.

Independent Sen. Ratna Omidvar, an internationally recognized Canadian expert in migration, said the recent change in U.S. policy has convinced her that the STCA should be suspended.

"This new policy of baby-snatching, as some people have called it, has led me to conclude now that the United States is not a safe place for children of asylum seekers, and therefore not a country that we can have an agreement on safety for refugees, " Omidvar said.

"However, we cannot simply make a grandiose gesture of cancelling the agreement without backing it up with significant renewal and resourcing of the Immigration and Refugee Board."

Hussen has said the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act requires Canada to monitor U.S. domestic policy to make sure that any changes in its asylum system continue to meet criteria for designation as a safe country. 

'Deeply concerned'

Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel said she is "deeply concerned" by the reports from the U.S., but said it's up to the government to evaluate whether it remains a safe country for asylum seekers.

She said the Americans must answer for their own immigration policies, but Canada must start pushing for stronger laws that would limit the corruption and gang violence that are driving many from their home countries.

"Can we always continue to advocate for compassion? Yes. Should we be putting more of an emphasis on Canada pushing back on some of the determinants of migration? Yes. Should we be putting in place a plan to deal with the fact that we've got tens of thousands of people trying to enter Canada? Yes."