III.

Agnes and her family didn’t intend to come to Canada. They arrived in the U.S. last August on a tourist visa, but Agnes was unable to secure a work permit, and with her savings, she struggled to provide for her children, Timmy, seven; Folarin, 11; and Richard, 13.



Agnes initially planned to claim asylum, but U.S. President Donald Trump’s tough talk about illegal immigrants had her worried.

Agnes and the kids were sitting in their apartment in Midland, Tex., last year when they saw a story about asylum seekers in Canada on the TV news.

“We saw how [authorities] are attending to them, how they are giving them food,” she says.

To find out more about how to make a claim, Agnes didn’t turn to a fixer or a secret network on social media. Her daughter, Folarin, Googled it.

Stories popped up about Roxham Road, Canada’s busiest illegal crossing, between New York and Quebec, where thousands have walked into Canada to claim asylum.

A few months later, they made the journey themselves. They packed everything they could into a few suitcases and made their way to the border. The well-trodden route includes a flight to New York City, a bus ride to Plattsburgh, N.Y. and a taxi to Roxham Road, where they cross into Canada.

It was middle of the night on March 29 when Agnes and her children arrived at the Canadian border. At the end of the long journey, her children began to cry.

“I was scared, because they say if you cross the border, you get arrested,” Folarin recalled.

But she collected herself, she says, and they walked into Canada. “I knew I had to put my mind together and be calm.”

They handed over their passports and belongings and were taken into custody. They were questioned, fingerprinted and, eventually, taken into the care of the Red Cross. They spent the month of April in a Montreal shelter set aside for asylum seekers.

Thousands of migrants have crossed into Canada at Roxham Road, which straddles the Quebec-New York border, in recent months. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

Thousands of migrants have crossed into Canada at Roxham Road, which straddles the Quebec-New York border, in recent months. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

The city has struggled to accommodate the influx of arrivals. Last summer, when there was a spike in arrivals from Haiti, authorities had to open up the cavernous Olympic Stadium.

The Quebec government has maintained that won’t be necessary this summer, but it has appealed to the federal government for more money and resources. It also wants Ottawa to help asylum seekers quickly relocate to Toronto or elsewhere in Canada if they don’t plan to stay in Quebec.

More than 75 per cent of the Nigerians who have crossed illegally this year did so with a valid travel visa to the U.S. Late last week, Ottawa announced an additional $50 million to help house asylum seekers.

Agnes has no plans to leave Quebec. She moved into an apartment block at the end of a quiet residential street in Pierrefonds, a suburb in Montreal’s West Island, at the beginning of May. The rent is $750, and she has to share a bedroom with her three children. Nearly everything in the apartment — the couch, chair and television — was donated. A hutch she found in an alley is among her prized possessions.

Agnes has a work permit, but for now, she relies on a monthly social assistance cheque of just over $1,000. To feed her family, she takes the bus with her kids to a nearby food bank and, sometimes, an African store she discovered — the spices remind her of home.

Agnes arrived too late in the school year to register her children in school. In the fall, when they are enrolled, she hopes to get a job or take French lessons.

“Just to survive, I can do any work,” Agnes says. She lists off a few options: cashier, cleaner, caretaker for the elderly.

Agnes bought an old French-English dictionary that stays on the coffee table. The children, who, like Agnes, speak Yoruba as well as English, use it to quiz one another.

The kids were given some schooling during the month in the shelter, and were able to pick up a few words of French.

“I know how to say greetings and the parts of the body,” Folarin says proudly.

Agnes dreams of being able to start a new life in Montreal, “because I know I will be protected here, so my life is safe and the life of my children is safe.”