[Aylmer]

Originally Posted by lio45

True, that's the entire point.

Have we witnessed cases yet of Syrian refugees from the past year crossing illegally into the U.S. from Canada claiming Canada doesn't qualify anymore as safe under the STCA? (They could show there's a chance they'll get killed based on their faith.) If so, how are they processed? Does the argument actually work?

Personally, I don't think any court or government would ever accept to lower the bar for what constitutes "safety" to such an extreme level. By these standards, no place will ever be safe, so there are no safe third countries anymore.

It depends:

- If this person has been sponsored (or otherwise acquired refugee status or permanent residence in Canada), then they have to prove that they are escaping persecution in Canada. Ditto if they're coming from the US.

- If this person has applied for asylum in Canada, but it has been refused, they can actually cross into the States and claim asylum at a proper border crossing.

- If this person does not have any permanent status in Canada, and they cross into the States irregularly, then they just have to prove that they would face persecution in Syria. If they have started a claim in the USA, that claim will become invalid.

- They cannot claim asylum if they have been found to be "inadmissible [...] on the grounds of security, for violating human or international rights, or for serious criminality [...].

So the people crossing the border irregularly are not people who have already been accepted as refugees in the States. If they are, they are almost certain to be turned back since, as so many people have pointed out, the USA is a safe country.

The issue is not whether the USA is safe. It is whether their home country is safe.