NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — Sen. Chuck Schumer is asking Canada to take a stand against ‘flagpoling,’ a legal loophole at the border to get Canadian work permit paperwork processed quickly, but that he says increases traffic.
“I am here to call on the Canadian government to close this loophole,” senate majority leader Schumer said.
“[It is] increasing traffic and wait times here at the border, hampering smooth commerce between our nations, [and] hampering tourism.”
What is flagpoling?
Sen. Schumer says non-Canadian citizens that are seeking to get their work permits in Canada can wait up to nine months for normal processing to take place.
However, according to Immigration Station Canada, if those people go to a Canadian port of entry, their papers are processed “often in less than 30 minutes.”
The way to get to a Canadian port of entry, is to leave for the United States, purposefully get denied entry to the country, and head back to Canada.
All of this is perfectly legal. Immigration Station Canada says on their website,”Ultimately the CBSA tries to limit Flagpoling because it places additional strain on border services. However, it is a perfectly legal process, and application processing is done on the spot.”
“The way it works, you first have to go to the American side for them to give you an administrative refusal letter, just saying ‘we are turning you away from entering the United States.'”
Back in November, this man was inside the border crossing office when a car crashed and exploded outside. He told 7 News he was helping friends do exactly this, flagpoling
“Take this piece of paper, give it back to Canadian officials, and say hey ‘I didn’t get access to the US.’ If you get to the Canadian side, present that paper and whatever immigration documents you have, then they process you for whatever permit you came there for.”
The car explosion happened while his friends were being processed by US border patrol agents, which is the exact lengthy process Sen. Schumer is aiming to eliminate.
“The applications take at least 30 minutes to process per person, and it takes an agent away from helping other visitors who want to get in,” Schumer said.
In total, Schumer says these purposeful U-turns in the US are taking away 35 manhours from border patrol agents every day, causing longer and longer backups at the border.
Schumer penned a letter to the Canadian government, asking them to close this loophole and expedite the border crossing wait times.
