Politics Running Up Against Policy as Canadian Liberals Mull Mexican Visa Lift Stephanie Levitz - The Canadian Press
go to original May 6, 2016

President Barack Obama, center, walks with Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto, left, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, right, at the 2015 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Manila. (AP/Susan Walsh)

The federal Liberal cabinet is wrestling with how to lift visa requirements for Mexican visitors to Canada without having to spend millions of dollars handling what would likely be a spike in asylum claims as a result.

It's not only a matter of money: on certain indicators used to decide whether to remove visas, Mexico may not qualify, spurring internal debate about how to justify lifting the visa requirement without doing so for other countries.

But with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau having promised repeatedly to lift the requirement and the so-called "Three Amigos" summit scheduled to take place in Ottawa on June 29, the push is on to find a way.

Options on the table include waiting until more resources in place to better monitor travel, and threatening to reinstate the visa requirement if asylum claims from Mexico cross a certain threshold.

...The previous Conservative government imposed visa restrictions on Mexico in 2009, citing a need to curb asylum claims — in 2008, there were more than 9,000, making up nearly a quarter of all claims filed that year.  The majority were rejected as unfounded.

Read the rest at The Canadian Press

Related: Liberals ‘Working with Diligence’ to Remove Visa Requirements for Mexican Travelers (National Post)

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