America's Talking - Canada Pledges to Improve Border Security After Meeting With Trump Official

Episode Date: December 7, 2024

(The Center Square) — A leading member of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's cabinet says that Canada will bolster its border security after meeting with President-elect Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary nominee, Howard Lutnick. Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc made the comments to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation after Trump threatened broad 25% tariffs against Canada and Mexico if they do not help stop the flow of illegal immigrants into the U.S. "As everyone is aware, thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before," Trump said in a statement last week threatening the 25% tariff. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, chief content officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. President-elect Donald Trump's threats to impose tariffs on imported goods from countries like Canada as a negotiating tactic to force these countries to help with illegal immigration appears to be paying early dividends. Joining me to discuss this today is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Center Square, Casey, how did Trump's threats with Canada help with the border situation? Right. I mean, Trump took a lot of criticism for this unconventional method, but he has some early

results, it seems. A Canada, a top Canadian official has promised to up their border security. Now, you may think the many listeners may think that the border crisis is reserved only for the southern border, but that's actually not true. The northern border does have plenty of people trying to come across it illegally. legally, in particular, hundreds of people tied to the terror watch list. Actually, many years, there's more people connected to the terror watch list coming to the northern border than the southern border, which is really unexpected, interesting,

considering that we have millions and millions coming across the southern border. But the terror watch list of the northern border is definitely a recurring issue. And so Canadian public safety minister, Dominique Leblanc, that's how they say it in a day. the public safety minister promised to told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that they're going to up border security. Of course, Trump threatened 25% tariffs against Canada and Mexico

if they don't do something about the illegal immigration crisis. And on top of that, Dan, you may have seen that Mexico seized a record amount of fentanyl this week. Just days after Trump threatened that 25% tariff on Mexico, they're also going to try to up their border security. These both leaders have bristled at this. They don't like it.

They've kind of said things to the media about how they don't like it. But right now looks like the results are at least coming in, even if they're just trying to do a little bit of something to appease Trump. It's still something. This seizure in Mexico was the biggest seizure of fentanyl, which is actually in Sonola, which is in the famous Sonola cartel is there. So they may have even taken the cartels or maybe the cartels. or maybe the cartels are working with them.

I don't know. A record seizure of fentanyl. Canada's pledging to up their security. Are you tired of winning yet, Dan? That's the question. Well, as you mentioned, Casey, it's actually more than 1,100 people who are on the terror watch list,

a list that countries across the world share with each other. More than 1,100 have illegally crossed into the U.S. from Canada during the Biden administration by far a record number. And of course, that's only the ones that we know about, right? There are these gotaways, folks who successfully get into the country who we don't know. They're either detected by drone cameras spotted by eye by Border Patrol agents, but who aren't close enough to them to apprehend them. So, yes, the focus the past four years has been mostly been on the southwestern U.S. border,

but as the Center Square has repeatedly reported, there's a similar crisis at the northern border. And there are far fewer agents patrolling the northern border. There is no partially built wall between the U.S. and Canada, much more opportunities for illegal foreign nationals to sneak into the U.S. So this is a big deal. And another thing about it, what you mentioned too up top, that Trump has faced criticism, for his threats of tariffs on all foreign goods that come into the country. The American people, a majority of voters, actually support President-elect Trump's strategy of threatening these tariffs on countries like Canada and Mexico to incentivize them to close

their borders. A new poll this week from the Napolitan News Service found that 54% of voters actually support Trump's approach here. Yeah, I mean, these tariffs, I think a lot of people aren't familiar with these tariffs and how they're used. But other countries do all kinds of tariffs, Dan, and they do tariffs against us. So we, you know, I think it's kind of this new, weird thing, like what is Trump doing? But other countries do tariffs and they use them against us as well. And as you said, a majority are behind this. 54% of voters support Trump's approach compared to 31% who don't. And 15% are unsure. And I haven't that number. I surprised that number is not higher from this Napolitan news

service poll. Just because tariffs are really confusing. They're complex. They're not something that have been a part of mainstream political debate or discussion in recent years. As Trump pointed out on the Joe Rogan podcast when he was running for office, tariffs were really big in like the Gilded Age, for instance, in different times. In American history, they've been wielded much more, you know, effectively and with more commonplace to do so. But again, we're going back to this poll. 52% think Trump's strategy will work. Right now it looks like it is working. And go back to this Mexico thing, Dan, it was over over 2,000 pounds of fentanyl that was seized. Two thousand pounds and one ounce of fentanyl is enough to kill you.

I mean, so this is just a crazy amount of fentanyl that was seized. But this is the kind of thing we probably wouldn't even have known about if Trump hadn't threatened these tariffs because this stuff is coming into the country every day. It's getting put into all kinds of other recreational drugs, not normally associated with fentanyl. And that's why the opioid overdose epidemic is still at record levels. And as we've reported, excuse me, repeatedly at the centerscore.com, you know, fentanyl deaths have skyrocketed in recent years. The precursors of fentanyl are made in China, shipped to the cartels in Mexico, and then illegally smuggled over the border.

And that has been a huge, just not the millions of people who have been smuggled across the border. the fentanyl and other illicit narcotics has caused a huge problem and thousands and thousands of deaths in the U.S. The fentanyl crisis is something that needs to be dealt with. Yeah, and I've wrote about this at theCenterSquare.com just a few weeks back that, you know, doctors have taken a lot of flack for overprescribing opioids and maybe there's something to that. But, you know, the latest research has shown that doctors are prescribing less, fewer and fewer opioids, but the overdose deaths are increasing. And that's simply because the doctor's prescriptions are not the main source,

not even close to the main source of opioids and for Americans anymore. It's coming in, you know, by the tons through the southern border. Of course, plenty of Americans take opioids responsibly, and they do get it from their doctor. But people who are looking to abuse it or sell it or cut it up and put it into other drugs, they're getting it via the southern border one way or another. Thank you for joining us today, Casey. Listeners can keep up with this story and more at thecentersquare.com.