Former U.S. Ambassador to Canada Bruce Heyman shared some strong words about his country's immigration policies, saying he’s “embarrassed” that people are fleeing his country.

“I’m totally embarrassed with the way our country treats people, that they feel that they have to flee the United States of America,” Heyman said in an interview that airs Sunday. “But that’s the circumstances we’re in.”

Appointed by former U.S. President Barack Obama, Heyman served as his country’s ambassador to Canada between April 2014 and Jan. 2017.

With U.S. President Donald Trump pursuing an aggressive immigration policy, many people, Heyman said, “are very scared.”

“Psychologically, if people are under pressure and threatened in the United States and feel they have to flee, they’re going to go somewhere,” he said. “Either they’re going to go in hiding within the United States or they’re going to flee the country.”

Many of these people, he noted, are now fleeing north into Canada.

“This is going to be a continued stress point,” he added, particularly in “the summer months.”

Tens of thousands of asylum seekers have entered Canada from the U.S. since Trump won the 2016 U.S. election. Many more are expected this spring and summer, particularly because the Trump administration plans to end special immigration protection for nearly 60,000 Hondurans.

While Heyman hopes that Trump “doesn’t do anything that causes people additional anxiety,” he doubts that the northward flow of asylum seekers will ebb.

“The tensions are high,” Heyman explained. “(Trump)’s highly distracted, there are a lot of things happening here, he’s trying to feed his base, we’ve got an election coming up here in the fall and it wouldn’t surprise me if they get more aggressive on immigration.”

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