SAINT-BERNARD-DE-LACOLLE, QUE.—Security officials scrambled on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border Monday morning when two men, a young woman and an infant made their way to the busiest hole in the frontier.On the American side, the group was flagged to the U.S. Border Patrol. Agents intervened and brought them in for questioning and verifications to ensure that they were legally in the country, said Norman Lague, an officer with the agency.When they passed the inspection, the group loaded their three backpacks, the baby’s diaper bag, a stroller and car seat into a silver taxi van and continued along Roxham Road, a dusty dead-end street, on their way to Canada.It is a version of the scenario that happens now several times a day — every day — here near the Quebec town of Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle — a taxi arrives, a family emerges, luggage is hauled across a border that is nothing more than a ditch, the RCMP arrests the asylum seekers, and takes them to be processed into an already overloaded system. Read more:Montreal becomes third Canadian sanctuary city for non-status refugeesToronto not truly a ‘Sanctuary City,’ report saysHow Canada should react to Trump and refugee crisis: OpinionBut despite the heartwarming photos of police officers helping with young children, or offering an arm to negotiate the slippery snowbanks, it appears that the status quo is starting to stress Canada’s border protection and refugee-intake system.From corporals to a staff sergeant to an inspector, the Mounties who spoke to reporters during a media tour Monday were too stoic to admit such a thing. But Brad Cutris, an acting division chief with the U.S. Border Patrol said it loud and clear from the American side of the border in response to questions lobbed at him a few feet away in Canada.“A solution would be great,” he said.Like what? a Radio-Canada journalist asked, while teetering on the snowy bank of a creek ru ...
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