Trump and Trudeau hit pause on the US-Canada tariff war—30 days before the next round. But the real fight is happening elsewhere: migrants are under attack.
Across Canada, people are vowing to “buy Canadian” in defiance of Trump’s threats. There is no “buy Canadian” without migrants. Migrant workers travel thousands of miles to grow the food on our tables. They plant, harvest, process, and package our meals. They do it under some of the worst working conditions in the country. To support Canadian food, you must defend the people who make it possible.
Why is Trump threatening tariffs?
Trump claims it’s about stopping “illegal immigration” and “poisonous fentanyl.” But the numbers expose the lie. Last year, about 21,000 people were detained in the US crossing over from Canada—a fraction of the US population. And it’s not just Canada – migrants crossing into the US from Mexico have already plummeted due to Biden’s border militarization. Similarly, less than 0.2% of fentanyl entering into the US comes from Canada.
So what’s this really about? Power, profit, and fear.
Trump and his billionaire friends like Elon Musk—whose net worth increased by $170 billion in just one month post election—need distractions and division. Villainizing and scapegoating migrants overwhelms the news cycle. At a time where the working class is experiencing low-wages, hunger and precarious housing, we are being tricked into believing that migrants are the problem, drowning out the real issue: the rich are getting richer off our backs.
Canada’s War on Migrants
Canadian politicians have already been singing from the Trump hymn-book.
In 2024, migrants were scapegoated for the housing and affordability crisis, and federal Liberals made dozens of cuts resulting in over 3,000 people per day losing their work or study permits in 2025 and 2026. Our friends, family members and neighbours who built roots here, are now being forced to leave or stay or become undocumented. This distracted many of us from the fact that 2024 was the year of the highest income inequality in Canada ever recorded.
Now, as part of the tariff deal, Trudeau is throwing $1.3 billion into border surveillance—more RCMP, more drones, more CBSA officers.
But that’s not all. When this package was announced in December, the Liberals are floating even more Trump-style policies (that have not been implemented):
- Mass deportations
- Sweeping powers to cancel immigration documents, including visas, as well as reject applications already made, and stop accepting applications
- Restrictions and attacks on countries refusing to accept deportees
These are Conservative-like policies, and so the Conservative Leader wants to go even further. And the Conservatives? Pierre Poilievre is calling for helicopters and the military at the border. Just like Trump did when he deployed the U.S. Army to the Mexico border.
Buy Local = Defend Migrants
People across Canada are standing up against Trump’s overreach, vowing to buy Canadian. Buying local means standing with the workers who grow and prepare our food.
Canada’s food industry runs on migrant labour. Fruits, vegetables, meat, wine, flowers—all harvested by migrants, many earning poverty wages, facing abuse, and denied basic rights. Amnesty International calls the conditions “shocking abuse and discrimination.”
Solidarity does not begin and end at the checkout aisle. To ensure justice, we must also fight for full immigration status for all.
Against Trump, Migrant Exploitation and Division
Tariffs are on pause. The war on migrants and our scapegoating is not. Rich CEOs keep getting richer. We must take action:
- Forward this to three friends.
- Urge them to subscribe and take action: www.MigrantRights.ca/RightsNotCuts.
- Build a massive movement of solidarity between working people everywhere against the richest few who are distracting us.