US citizens are unhappy with mass entry of illegal workers from bordering Canada, especially in the construction sector. They are particularly unhappy that such workers neither pay U.S. taxes nor contribute to US society in any manner and yet steal jobs of a U.S. citizen.
Immigrants from Canada can openly pass through Portland border which is mostly unguarded and unbothered by federal immigration authorities.
Reasons for these immigrants coming here are understandable though not admirable. He is just looking to work for 40 hours at a higher salary; though back home he has no problems of insecurity or family or education for his children.
These immigrants don’t want to buy a house or have a credit card and not even a movie-rental membership; thus no way contribute to US economy. In some instances, where these workers were injured, they had to do their own stitching of wounds as they could not afford medical costs. US feels that their goals and conduct is selfish to say the least. He takes health insurance from Canada but needs green card in US. He returns to BC, just six hours drive away. These workers are ready to work at fraction of the salary that a US citizen would lawfully get.
Currently about 70,000 undocumented Canadians work in the United States. US citizens feel that it is both a confirmation of the failures of U.S. current immigration policies and a testament to the absurdity of attempts to change them. The immigration debate in this country is, in fact, no longer a debate.
Border agents have no reason to stop such workers. Unlike Mexican citizens who enter the United States, Canadians aren’t required to obtain visas. (They have six-month “visa waivers” instead.)
What is opportunity for such workers is fury for Americans who would like to build bigger, tougher, more expensive walls along the southern border.