-Source-Business Insider-
A record number of US citizens applied for asylum status in Canada in 2017.
Canadian government data from the Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship department show they received 2,550 applications for asylum in 2017. That's six times more than the country received in 2016.
US citizens were third on the list of total asylum applications, after Haitians and Nigerians.
These Americans are not fleeing war, violence, or persecution like typical asylum-seekers are. Rather, experts say the bulk of these American asylum-seekers are actually the children of unauthorized immigrants living in the US.
The unauthorized immigrants fear being deported by the Trump administration, and so they are seeking asylum in Canada and bringing their US citizen children with them, one Canadian immigration lawyer told The Guardian. A record number of US citizens applied for asylum in Canada during 2017, the most since 1994. Read more