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Weirdly absent from their piece, and from many others, was any mention of the total hash Trudeau’s government has made of handling irregular border-crossers thus far.

The logistical challenges are understandable: For example, Toronto’s homeless shelters are on track to be 50 per cent occupied by asylum seekers, and the city can’t hope to find them all more permanent options in the midst of a pre-existing housing crisis. It’s unclear where hundreds of refugee claimants currently put up in college dormitories will wind up once school is back in. The solutions might not be pretty — but that isn’t a situation of Ottawa’s making.

The main problem, which is of Ottawa’s making, is the length of time these people are going to have to wait in limbo. The average processing time has skyrocketed from a few months to an estimated two-and-a-half years, and it took far too long for the government to react. The 2018 budget has money for 50 new claims adjudicators; Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen pledges this will increase annual capacity by 17,000 cases. But if the monthly average of irregular crossers so far in 2018 keeps up, they will add up to something like 23,000 — not even enough to keep up with new arrivals, in other words, let alone clear the backlog.

That backlog reached its lowest point this century in 2015, at just over 16,000. As of March 31, 2018, it was 51,910.

It’s tough to guess how much more of a burden scrapping the STCA might place on the system. Its doesn’t seem to be acting as a powerful deterrent at the well-worn crossing in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Que. But it sure won’t lessen the burden.