Like the inaugural year of Donald Trump’s first presidency, the number of U.S. citizens trying to flee the country by seeking refugee status in Canada is on the rise. Article content

The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) updated its statistics last week to show that 245 applications have been referred to its refugee protection division (RPD) as of June 30 — 41 more than in 2024. Article content Article content

In fact, the number of U.S. asylum seekers in the first half of 2025 is the most Canada has received in the past five years and could very well surpass the 423 referrals RPD got in 2019.

Following an overhaul to Canada’s refugee system in December 2012, the high-water mark came in 2017, Trump’s first official year in office, when IRB fielded 869 referrals. (Only

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