‘Roxham Road! 60 dollars!’: Here’s how asylum seekers cross irregularly into Canada

In December, a total of 4,689 migrants entered the country through Quebec's Roxham Road — more than all would-be refugees who arrived in Canada in 2021.

Moments after a Greyhound bus from New York City pulls into a gas station bus stop in Plattsburgh, N.Y., Friday at 5:25 a.m., several minivan taxis swarm the vehicle.

About a dozen passengers descend from the bus — mostly single men, but also several couples and a family with three young daughters. They are greeted by four pushy taxi drivers.

The drivers begin to shout: “Frontera!” — the Spanish word for border —“Roxham Road! 60 dollars! Come! Come!”

As the passengers unload luggage from under the bus, the taxi drivers are relentless, beckoning them into their cars for the 30-minute drive to Roxham Road, the wooded route into Canada that has become an unofficial border crossing for tens of thousands of asylum seekers over the past several years.

Most of the bus passengers approached by The Canadian Press refused to talk; some shielded their faces. Many weren’t dressed for winter: they wore T-shirts, thin jackets, sneakers. One couple, however, were prepared, wearing warm winter jackets, tuques, gloves and boots.

One single man hopped into a cab. Asked where he was from, he said, “Haiti.”

Anxiously waiting for the taxi to depart, the man said his bus ticket was “purchased by a friend.”

Last week, reports said officials from New York City were providing free bus tickets to migrants heading north to claim asylum in Canada. New York City Mayor Eric Adams told Fox 5 his administration helps in the “re-ticketing process” for people who arrive in the city but want to go elsewhere.