In July, Maxen, a Haitian man living in Hamilton drove to the Canada-U.S. border in Quebec where he'd arranged to pick up his two sisters coming from Miami, but the reunion didn't happen as he imagined.

The sisters, who fled Haiti last year due to violence, had hoped to settle in the U.S., but when President Donald Trump's administration ended a humanitarian program for people from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Haiti, they decided to come to Canada where Maxen already lived. Having a relative here meant they could claim asylum.

They got to the border after a two-day bus trip, but Paulna, the younger sister, who was travelling with her husband and three children ages 12, eight and two, wasn't there when Maxen arrived.

He soon learned she'd been rejected by the Canadian border agents bec

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