CDN: Visa-Free Mexicans

From the Globe and Mail:
"Visa-free travel for Mexican visitors is in the works"

Canada is working to reverse a controversial decision to impose visa requirements on Mexican visitors. Prime Minister Stephen Harper made the pledge to his new Mexican counterpart, Enrique Pena Nieto, who visited Ottawa Wednesday just days before he is officially confirmed as president.

The 2009 move by Canada – an effort to curb bogus refugee claims – irritated the Mexican government. The president-elect raised the issue during one-on-one meetings with Mr. Harper on Parliament Hill and got a positive response from the Prime Minister.  “We would ultimately like to see visa-free travel with Mexico,” Mr. Harper said. “But we… don’t want a re-occurrence of the problems we had in the past.” The Prime Minister said the visa requirement was one of Canada’s only legal options at the time for responding to bogus claims, but under new federal legislation and policies, alternatives can be found. When Ottawa imposed the requirement for temporary visas for Mexican visitors, Citizenship and Immigration released statistics showing that the number of refugee claims from Mexico had increased from 3,400 in 2005 to 9,400 in 2008. It further noted that independent assessments of claims by the Immigration and Refugee Board produced an overall acceptance rate of 11 per cent for Mexican refugee claims. Earlier this year, federal immigration reform legislation aimed at reducing the decision time for refugee claims received royal assent. The legislation allows Ottawa to list designated countries as places that do not normally produce legitimate refugees. Claimants from those countries will not have access to a new “Refugee Appeal Division” of the Immigration and Refugee Board. The measures are expected to take effect later this year.

^ Hopefully Canada will fix all the loopholes before they reinstate visa-free access to Mexicans. This could also have consequences on the US-Canadian border as it was determined that many Mexicans would travel (visa-free) to Canada and then enter the US and stay (illegally.) I would also hope the Canadians include the Americans so that no new barriers would need to be made. ^

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/visa-free-travel-for-mexican-visitors-