The Trump administration’s claims that Canada’s border is a national security threat do not stand up to scrutiny, according to an internal government report obtained by Global News.
Responding to claims by Republican politicians that hundreds of suspected terrorists cross illegally into the U.S. from Canada, the report countered that such incidents were “limited.”
Republican members of Congress have described Canada as “a major threat,” claiming the “porous northern border” was a crisis that needed to be addressed through legislation.
“The actual statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, however, do not support these claims,” the Canadian government’s Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre wrote.
Marked “Secret/Canadian Eyes Only,” the report was written a week after President Donald Trump was sworn into office. A copy was released to Global News under the Access to Information Act.
Prime Minister Mark Carney visited the White House on Tuesday amid a trade war initiated by Trump, which he has justified partly by citing the flow of illegal migrants and fentanyl from Canada.
Pro-Trump lawmakers signed a statement last year claiming the Biden administration’s “neglect” of the northern border had left the U.S. vulnerable to an “unprecedented surge” of illegal migrants crossing from Canada, among them “known terrorists.”
“Media have reported that politicians in the U.S. have expressed concerns in relation to the Canadian border,” said the report, which described itself as a “fact check” of American statements.
“Further, the new U.S. president has threatened to impose a steep tariff on imports from Canada as of 1 February 2025, citing concerns that include illegal migration.”
“Media reporting also specifically indicates irregular crossings (i.e. those who cross between points of entry) are dramatically increasing with ‘hundreds of terror suspects’ being arrested.”
But the Canadian report said that since 2022, only six suspects flagged by the U.S. Terrorist Screening Data Set, or TSDS, had tried to make their way south between border posts, the report said.
“Irregular entries along the northern border remain a fraction of similar entries seen at the U.S. southern border,” it said. “Further, of such entries, there are extremely few known instances of someone holding a U.S. TSDS record.”
At border crossing facilities, 358 people on the TSDS list tried to enter the U.S. from Canada last year, compared with 484 in 2023 and 313 in 2022.
But those numbers have steadily declined as a proportion of the total volume of travellers, the report said.
Even those on the watchlist were not necessarily dangerous, since the TSDS “includes a variety of individuals, not just those deemed to be current and credible threats to national security,” it said.
“It also includes those affiliated with such individuals as well as individuals requiring further investigation.”
The report also said that extremists crossed borders for reasons other than carrying out attacks.
“Some Canadians have sought to travel to the U.S. in order to attend events (extremist-affiliated or co-opted), likely seeking to forge stronger ties with like-minded individuals,” ITAC wrote.
It cited the example of Active Club white nationalists who use fitness and martial arts to attract followers, and see themselves as fighters training to take on “a system that they claim is deliberately plotting against the white race.”
“While travel is not necessarily linked to violent extremism, such travel by those who engage in extremist activities can allow them to reinforce networks, share information, and strengthen capabilities, all of which could ultimately lead to violence,” it said.
But the travel goes both ways.
In January, Canadian immigration officials arrested an American convicted over his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C.
He was later pardoned by Trump, along with about 1,500 others the report called “extremists, conspiracy theorists and militia members” convinced by false claims the 2020 election was stolen.
Other recent examples include Patrick Matthews, a Manitoba neo-Nazi arrested in Delaware in 2020.
On July 28, 2024, the RCMP arrested Ahmed Eldidi and his son Mostafa in Toronto for allegedly planning an ISIS attack. Mostafa had entered Canada from Iowa, where he was a student.
The RCMP arrested Pakistani citizen Muhammad Shahzeb Khan in Quebec on Sept. 4 as he was allegedly on his way to New York to conduct an ISIS mass shooting at a Jewish centre.
The U.S. announced in December that it had deported a Jordanian with “ties to terrorism,” after he illegally crossed the border from Canada. But he had actually entered Canada from the U.S. in 2017.