More Americans applied for refugee status in Canada in the first half of 2025 than in all of 2024, and more than in any full year since 2019, according to data published on Thursday by Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board.
Their share of total refugee claims - 245 of about 55,000 - is small and Canada’s acceptance of U.S. refugee claims has historically been low. Asylum-seekers from other countries crossing the land border from the U.S. are sent back under a bilateral agreement with the reasoning that they should apply for asylum in the first “safe” country they arrived in.
Last year 204 people filed refugee claims in Canada with the United States as their country of alleged persecution. Claims from the U.S. also rose during the first Trump administration.
I’d imagine the Americans applying for refugee status are among those who also aren’t spouting the usual American exceptionalism bullshit. There’s a reason they’re trying to get out of the country. We’re not a monolith, after all.