Canada: No plans to clamp down at border to deter migrants

Canada will not tighten its border to deter migrants crossing illegally from the United States in the wake of a US immigration crackdown because the numbers are not big enough to cause alarm, a government minister said on Saturday.

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said the issue had not risen to a scale that required hindering the flow of goods and people moving across the world's longest undefended border.

Hundreds of people, mainly from Africa and the Middle East, have defied winter conditions and walked across the border, seeking asylum. They are fleeing President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, migrants and refugee agencies say.

It is not common to have so many asylum seekers in the United States looking for refuge in Canada over such a short period. The influx poses a political risk for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who faces pressure from the left, which wants more let in, and from the right, which fears an increased security risk.

"We are concerned and we will deal properly with the extra hundreds (crossing illegally)," Goodale told reporters at a televised news conference in Emerson, Manitoba. "But the full border deals with 400,000 people moving in both directions every day. It also handles C$2.5 billion in trade every day.