A vigil was held in Montreal on Sunday for a 33-year-old woman who died trying to cross the border from Canada to the United States last month.
Ana Karen Vasquez Flores was a young woman living in Mexico who was looking for a new life in the U.S. where her husband was waiting for her.
“She [knew about] the criminal gangs on the border between Mexico and United States,” said Hady Anne, a spokesperson for Solidarity Across Borders. “For her, it was safer to fly to Montreal and take her chance crossing the border from Canada.”
Vasquez Flores arrived in Quebec five-months pregnant and payed someone to help her cross the border.
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“A guy was going to take her and took her money. We don’t really know what happened,” Anne told Global News. “The information we got is that he put her on a boat and left her there.”
Vasquez Flores was found in upstate New York on December 14, two days after her husband alerted a border patrol agent that she never showed up to their meeting point.
“Closing the border is a real problem,” said Anne, adding that the area is now fertile ground criminal gangs and human smuggling.
A 35-year-old American man has been charged in connection with her death. Several organizations are continuing to call on the government to create safer border policies.
“[The government] creates these gangs, because these gangs know the law. They know if they close the border, they have a chance to make money,” said Anne.
At least 10 people, including two families, died last year while trying to cross into the United States from Canada through unofficial border crossings.
“Our message to the Canadian government is that we are holding them accountable for each of these deaths.” said Nazila Bettache, a Caring for Social Justice member. “Each of these deaths is on their hands and the policies they enact are responsible for them.”
The Roxham Road crossing located in southern Quebec was shut down last March after the United States and Canada closed a long-standing loophole in the safe third country agreement.
Since then, the number of crossings has decreased, but several organizations are calling for safe status and passage for all migrants, ending what they call racist and colonial immigration policies.