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Even if some Dreamers do decide to brave the odds and seek refugee status in Canada, most wouldn’t need to cross the border illegally to do so, she said, because of an exception in the Safe Third Country Agreement. Most would-be refugees who try to enter Canada from the U.S. can be turned away at official border crossings and told to make their asylum claims in the U.S., which is why so many have been coming into Canada at unauthorized points. But Mexicans, who account for about 70 per cent of DACA recipients, are exempted from this rule because they don’t need a visa to come to Canada. They can claim asylum at any border checkpoint, Carey said.

Photo by Jose Luis Magana/ Associated Press

Independent Senator Ratna Omidvar said she has spoken to a number of Dreamers in recent days, and they seem less inclined to seek asylum in Canada than to look at immigrating through other channels.

“That was the least attractive to them,” she said. “They see themselves in a different way.”

Still, Omidvar said Canada should look at taking in 10,000 to 30,000 DACA recipients over the next several years, though she doesn’t believe the government needs to create a special program for them. She compared the Dreamers to the draft dodgers who came to Canada in the 1960s to escape the Vietnam War.

“I feel that Canadians have a huge amount of empathy and compassion, but their empathy for young people is always louder,” she said.

Irene Bloemraad, a sociology professor at the University of California Berkeley who specializes in immigration, said she doesn’t expect floods of Dreamers to make their way to Canada immediately, but it could be an appealing prospect if Congress fails to come up with a solution in the coming months.