Some Quebecers reluctant spectators to human drama playing out after crackdown at Roxham Road
CBC
Evelyne Bouchard was playing board games with her family on Saturday afternoon when she saw RCMP vehicles pull into her driveway.
Bouchard is used to the police presence. She owns a farm in Hemmingford, Que., along the U.S. border and just two kilometres away from Roxham Road.
But she says Saturday was out of the ordinary.
As of 12 a.m., police presence increased in the town after access to the illegal crossing was closed — this due to changes to the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA), which now prevent migrants from claiming asylum after crossing at Roxham Road.
Later that same day, the RCMP came to inform Bouchard that agents were in the woods looking for migrants who crossed into Canada illegally and were on her property.
"A little while later we saw them escorting a family, two adults and two children, to their vehicle … We just saw them walking down the driveway with the agents," said Bouchard, adding that one of the children was so small, they had to be carried.
She said seeing a family of migrants get apprehended first-hand was heartbreaking, even "surreal."
While she and her family were "hanging out" and "eating snacks" just a few hundred metres away, there were "the people whose lives are clearly going through some really tough times."
"The juxtaposition of those two realities is really shocking," said Bouchard.
Although Bouchard says the town has been the backdrop to the drama over immigration over the past few years, she expects to "see more evidence of people struggling," with Roxham Road no longer an option for the migrants seeking safe haven.
"It's just kind of part of living where we do. But it's less common to actually see people being, you know, marched into vehicles like that," said Bouchard.
"We occasionally see footprints or items of clothing that have been dropped in the woods as people are trying to make their way through, and it's just very moving and sad to see that," said Bouchard.
Bouchard says the community neighbouring the U.S. border is tightly knit, but their opinions diverge when it comes to immigration.
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This story is part of Welcome to Canada, a CBC News series about immigration told through the eyes of the people who have experienced it.
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