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Manitoba community seeing influx of unauthorized border-crossers

Town wants federal help for border-crossers

EMERSON, Man. — A small community on the border between Manitoba and North Dakota wants federal help for an influx of people seeking asylum.

The Municipality of Emerson-Franklin saw 22 people sneak across the border last weekend alone and had to put up 19 of them in a community hall.

The municipality's reeve, Greg Janzen, says volunteers fed the group and kept an eye on everyone while RCMP and border agents did interviews.

Janzen says he is sending the federal government a bill to draw attention to the resources his community is using.

He says the number of people coming across the border illegally has jumped in recent months, ever since politicians in the United States started talking about new restrictions on refugees.

Most of those who have arrived recently are originally from African countries such as Somalia and want to leave the United States for Canada.

The Canadian Press