© 2024 Maine Public | Registered 501(c)(3) EIN: 22-3171529
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Scroll down to see all available streams.

Desperate Immigrants Risk Perilous Winter Trek to Canada

Carlos Osorio
/
Associated Press/file
In this Jan. 6, 2015 photo cargo trucks cross the Ambassador Bridge from Detroit, left, leading into Windsor, Ontario, right.

TORONTO - Seidu Mohammed's lost all his fingers to frostbite when he made a perilous trek in sub-zero temperatures to cross the border illegally into Canada.

He is one of a small but growing number of immigrants risking the northern border crossing out of fear of being deported from the U.S.

America's neighbor to the north is increasingly being seen as a haven for asylum seekers turned away by the U.S. And some are willing to risk a walk across the border in dangerous cold and snow to get there.

In Manitoba, on the border of Minnesota and North Dakota, authorities say the pace has quickened since Donald Trump became U.S. president and banned travel from seven majority-Muslim countries.