A newly released memo shows federal officials warned last spring that expanding a bilateral refugee pact to the entire Canada-U.S. border would likely fuel smuggling networks and encourage people to seek more dangerous, remote crossing routes.
Tens of thousands of asylum seekers traveled through the North Country to the popular unofficial border crossing. But since the border rules changed in March, those numbers have dwindled.
The last RCMP building is coming down at Roxham Road, which became an unofficial border crossing used by more than 100,000 migrants crossing into Canada from Upstate New York to apply for asylum since 2017.