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Canada-United States relations news

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• Canada's Border Plan
• Additional expanded measures
• Ongoing border related efforts
• Securing the Canada-U.S. border: Actions and outcomes to date

In Canada, Public Safety Canada, alongside the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), takes a leadership role in keeping Canadians safe and supporting the country's economic prosperity through the secure and efficient management of Canada's borders. We are doing this by tackling cross-border crime, drug trafficking and irregular migration, including targeting organized crime groups, in collaboration with different law enforcement agencies across Canada and federal departments, and through ongoing dialogue between Canada and the United States on strategic and operational border policy issues.

Canada's Border Plan

The Government of Canada is taking concrete action to further strengthen border security and the immigration system to keep communities safe. To support this work, the Government of Canada announced an investment of $1.3 billion to support more personnel, new technology and equipment, and enhanced coordination.

The investment plan has five pillars for specific action, in addition to existing efforts:

1. Detecting and disrupting the illegal fentanyl trade
2. Introducing significant new tools for law enforcement
3. Improving operational coordination
4. Expanding information sharing
5. Minimizing unnecessary border volumes

Detecting and disrupting the illegal fentanyl trade

The Government of Canada is increasing support to law enforcement agencies through more technology, like state-of-the-art imaging and artificial intelligence tools, and domestic and cross-border collaboration to detect, intercept, and take further steps to disrupt and curb the illegal trade of fentanyl and precursor chemicals.

Strengthening border control

The CBSA is deploying new imaging and chemical detection tools at high-risk ports of entry and training and deploying new detector dog teams to intercept illegal drugs. The agency currently has over 80 detector dog teams located at various ports of entry across Canada.

Controlling precursors and profiling seized substances

Health Canada's new Precursor Chemical Risk Management Unit provides better oversight into precursor chemicals and distribution channels, and enhances monitoring and surveillance to enable timely law enforcement action.

Health Canada is also establishing a new Canadian Drug Analysis Centre that will allow for more specialized analysis of synthetic drug samples. The analysis will help determine how and where these substances were manufactured to support law enforcement and public safety partners to strategically target organized crime.

Introducing significant new tools for law enforcement

The Government of Canada is moving quickly to introduce new cutting edge technology and additional people at the border to quickly and efficiently detect and protect against crime.

The RCMP is deploying a new Aerial Intelligence Task Force, which is comprised of helicopters, drones, and mobile surveillance towers. The Government of Canada is also investing in augmenting the RCMP's border integrity program. With new investments, the RCMP will be better positioned to patrol, detect, respond, and investigate north and south bound criminal threats along the Canada-U.S. border between ports of entry.

Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed a new intelligence directive on organized crime and fentanyl that is supported by an investment of $200 million to allow Public Safety Canada and the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSE) to gather intelligence on transnational organized crime and share with our U.S. partners and law enforcement across the continent. To implement this directive, Public Safety Canada has established a Joint Operational Intelligence Cell to expand the RCMP's and the CSE's intelligence collection capacity, enabling the Government to target transnational organized crime and illegal fentanyl production and trafficking more effectively.

Improving operational coordination

The Government of Canada is working to improve our operational coordination in two important ways: firstly, through investments to enhance coordination and information sharing between federal government agencies and our provinces, territories and local law enforcement, and secondly, through our coordination with the U.S. on our enhanced border protocols.

The Government of Canada established the Integrated Money Laundering Intelligence Partnership (IMLIP) to target organized crime and high-end money laundering schemes, including fentanyl production and trafficking, through permissible information sharing between law enforcement and the financial services sector.

The Government of Canada is working to stand up regional integrated drug enforcement teams (RIDETs) in parts of the country experiencing high levels of drug production and/or trafficking activity.

Operational coordination with the United States

Since January 6, 2025, the CBSA adjusted the hours of service at land ports of entry across Canada, mirroring the same posture in the U.S. Determined in collaboration with the U.S., this decision will enhance overall security for both countries and it will allow both countries to use its resources more efficiently by deploying officers at busier ports of entry.

Additionally, the CBSA has announced its intent to establish its first-ever preclearance operation in the U.S. later this year. Preclearance will expedite the flow of legitimate travel and trade and enhance border security by identifying threats earlier in the process and before they arrive in Canada. Canada will be the only country to have preclearance operations in the U.S.

A North American Joint Strike Force to combat organized crime, fentanyl and money laundering has been established, based on a proven model where resources from multiple jurisdictions work together seamlessly. Multinational law enforcement collaborations have proven to be a powerful response to challenges at the border.

Expanding information sharing

By increasing opportunities to share important and relevant intelligence about border interceptions, Canadian and U.S. officials will be able to better identify and take stronger action against those who seek to abuse our immigration system.

This will further:

• Increase monitoring of illegal migration trends
• Improve resource planning and deployment; and
• Ultimately, better target and disrupt transnational organized crime groups involved in illegal border crossings

The Government of Canada is building on the information and intelligence sharing that takes place between our federal, provincial, territorial authorities, the U.S. and other international partners. For example, the High Risk Child Sex Offender Database Act was brought into force on December 31, 2024, allowing the RCMP to begin creating the public database that U.S. law enforcement partners will be able to access once complete.

Other discussions between Canadian and U.S. law enforcement agencies are taking place about ways to further improve information sharing to support operations and investigations and coordinate resources.

Enhanced information sharing will allow authorities to identify, monitor and collaborate with partners to intercept high-risk individuals attempting to travel between countries.

Minimizing unnecessary border volumes

The Government's Border Plan takes important steps to address immigration matters that are diverting resources away from important enforcement activities at the border. This means taking action to limit who can get into Canada – and who can stay. It also means taking a hard look at our asylum system and ensuring it works to protect those who genuinely need it – while ensuring we have the tools to remove from Canada those who don't.

In order to further enhance the CBSA's removal capabilities, the Government of Canada has provided funding for the CBSA to increase the rate at which it removes inadmissible people from Canada, which has seen a recent increase in the number of removals undertaken, the most in a decade. The highest priority for removals will continue to be based on safety and security grounds, including for national security reasons, organized crime, crimes against humanity, and other crimes.

New measures have been introduced to reduce the cost burden of removing inadmissible people from the country by increasing the fees that individuals will have to pay if they want to return to Canada. This change establishes a cost-recovery framework that is more in line with the current costs of removals and encourages voluntary compliance with removal orders. From January 1 to October 31, 2024, the CBSA removed over 14,000 inadmissible foreign nationals.

The CBSA has also ended the practice of flagpoling for work and study permits at the border. Flagpoling occurs when foreign nationals who hold temporary resident status in Canada leave Canada immediately to access immigration services at a port of entry.

This practice has taken up significant resources at the border, diverting Canadian and U.S. officers away from important enforcement activities and slows cross-border traffic. These changes benefit Canada and the U.S. by allowing both countries to effectively manage border operations, maintaining the integrity of our shared border.

Additional expanded measures

Fentanyl Czar

The Government appointed a Fentanyl Czar (or Commissioner of Canada’s Fight Against Fentanyl), Kevin Brosseau, who will support law enforcement agencies to engage with U.S. counterparts, and enhance operational collaboration and efficiency in detecting, disrupting, and dismantling the illegal fentanyl trade.

Terrorist entity listing

The Government of Canada is committed to protecting the safety and security of people in Canada and Canadians abroad and stopping the transnational criminal organizations behind the illegal fentanyl crisis and other harmful criminal activity. On February 20, 2025, the Government of Canada announced that it has listed seven transnational criminal organizations as terrorist entities under the Criminal Code. This will support criminal investigations and strengthen law enforcement's ability to prevent and disrupt the activities of the cartels.

Expanded surveillance

The Government is ensuring 24/7 eyes on the border through round-the-clock surveillance and by mobilizing law enforcement and civilian forces with new and modernized equipment. Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are working on protecting the border.

Government of Canada expands plan to strengthen border security

Ongoing border related efforts

Government of Canada departments and agencies have a long history of focused, collaborative work across Canada, as well as with U.S. and global counterparts, to maintain a safe and effective border.

Strengthen the immigration and asylum systems

The Government of Canada has already taken significant steps to strengthen the integrity of Canada's immigration and asylum systems and combat fraud. To do this, we:

• Introduced an Additional Protocol to the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) in partnership with the U.S. to expand the application of the STCA to the entire land border, including internal waterways. The number of asylum claims from people crossing illegally has dropped from an average of 165 per day in March 2023 to 12 per day since then
• Cancelled the visitor-to-worker public policy, which has been used by nefarious actors to mislead and mistreat foreign nationals
• Implemented a partial visa requirement for Mexican nationals to reduce the high number of asylum claims, most of which were refused, withdrawn or abandoned. This change has largely reduced claims from Mexican citizens at airports across the country
• Put in place measures to manage the volume of temporary resident arrivals and uphold the integrity of our immigration system, including:
  • reforming the International Student Program
  • ending post-graduation work permit 'flagpoling'
  • introducing new measures to address fraud in Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program
  • tightening eligibility requirements for:
    • temporary foreign workers
    • post-graduation work permits
    • work permits for spouses of international students and temporary foreign workers
• Heightened screening and enhanced tools to detect fraud and reduce the number of non-genuine visitors to Canada, while re-examining and taking action on visas already in circulation when fraud is suspected.

Securing the Canada-U.S. border: Actions and outcomes to date

Securing the Canada-U.S. Border One Team, One Border