Donald Trump threatens to increase tariffs on Canadian products to put an end to an “invasion” of drugs and migrants in the United States. Here’s why the American president criticizes the Canadian border.
• Also read: 25% customs tariffs: 5 questions to better understand Trump’s threat
“As everyone knows, thousands of people are pouring in from Mexico and Canada, bringing crime and drugs to levels never seen before,” the president-elect of the United States said Monday on his social network, Truth Social .
The president particularly points the finger at fentanyl, a powerful synthetic drug that is believed to enter the United States illegally from Canada.
On Tuesday, François Legault described these fears as “legitimate”, while asking the federal government to tackle the problems raised by Donald Trump.
We therefore ask the question: are the criticisms of the Canadian authorities justified?
Seizures decreasing, but…
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it seized nearly 5,000 kilograms of illegal drugs at the Canadian border between October 2023 and September 2024.
This figure includes 19.5 kg of fentanyl.
For comparison, around 25,000 kg of narcotics were seized between October 2022 and September 2023 and around 27,200 kg during the same period between 2021 and 2022.
The quantity of illegal drugs seized at the border from Canada has therefore decreased by more than 20,000 kg in two years, according to data from American border authorities.
However, it is not the seizures that worry Donald Trump the most.
Drug traffickers established in Canada
For a little over five years, more and more fentanyl traffickers have established themselves in Canada, note the American and Canadian authorities. The number of illegal laboratories intended for the production of fentanyl has increased significantly since then.
It is legislative restrictions in China, the main exporter of chemicals used to produce fentanyl, which would have encouraged these criminal groups to come and establish themselves in Canada, explained an agent of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in August.
In the fall of 2023, more than 350 criminal groups were active in the fentanyl market in Canada, according to a government document obtained by Radio-Canada.
Several fentanyl laboratories belonging to these groups have also been defeated in Alberta and Ontario in the last two years.
Last October, the RCMP notably indicated that it had dismantled the “largest and most sophisticated fentanyl and methamphetamine superlaboratory in Canada” in British Columbia.
American authorities believe that Canada is not doing enough to combat the phenomenon. Washington fears that the spread of these production sites will worsen the opioid epidemic in both countries.
Illegal crossings on the rise
More than 23,000 people were arrested while trying to illegally enter the United States from Canada between September 2023 and 2024, according to U.S. border officials.
This is 13,000 more arrests than in 2023 and 21,000 more than in 2022.
Most of the arrests took place in the Swanton sector, an area located between Quebec and Vermont, New Hampshire and New York State.
The sector’s lead Border Patrol agent, Robert Garcia, said last month on the social network last years combined.
− With information from New York Timesof Guardian and of Washington Post
