US asylum claims in Canada reached 634 in 2025, more than triple the 204 filed the year before and the highest annual total on record outside the first Trump administration. The figure comes from the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB), which publishes claims by country of alleged persecution. Another 858 US claims sat pending as of Dec. 31.
The 2025 total tops every full year since at least 2019. It also marks the second consecutive year-over-year jump, after 2024’s 204 claims already exceeded 2023’s 157. The IRB does not publish claimant demographics, and the data does not specify why each claim was made.
What the IRB numbers count
The 634 figure reflects claims referred to the IRB’s Refugee Protection Division by the Canada Border Services Agency or Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada after passing an eligibility screen. Of the US claims the IRB finalized in 2025:
- 27 were rejected
- 49 were categorized as withdrawn and other
- Most remained pending at year-end, contributing to the 858-claim backlog
The pending volume reflects a system-wide inventory problem the IRB has flagged in its own main estimates documents, where intake of more than 173,000 claims in fiscal 2024-2025 outstripped funded capacity.
US claims have historically been rare and rarely successful. The Safe Third Country Agreement requires asylum seekers crossing the land border to claim in the first safe country they reach, and Canadian refugee law applies state-protection and internal-flight-alternative doctrines that assume the US can protect its own citizens from persecution. The 634 US claims sit inside a total Canadian intake of more than 107,000 referred in 2025.
Who is filing the claims
The IRB does not break down US claims by demographic profile. Immigration lawyers and advocacy groups in Canada have reported a range of US claimants in their caseloads, including families and professionals such as American doctors, and members of the LGBTQ community.
Refugee lawyer Yameena Ansari told The Globe and Mail that Donald Trump’s return “has created a climate of fear in the U.S. that pushes vulnerable populations, women, minorities, LGBTQ+ folks, to look north for safe haven.
A July 2025 ruling set an early legal marker. A Canadian judge halted the deportation of Angel Jenkel, an American claimant, criticizing Canada’s Immigration Department for failing to properly consider the situation of LGBTQ Americans since Trump returned to office. The Canadian Bar Association’s immigration section published a December 2025 brief arguing for exceptional treatment of vulnerable American claimants.
How the trend compares historically
US claims to Canada have spiked during prior moments of US political turbulence, including the first Trump administration. The 2025 total exceeds those earlier peaks. Reuters reported in August that mid-year 2025 filings (245) had already passed full-year 2024, then accelerated through the second half of the year to reach 634 by Dec. 31.
The Canadian system that processes those claims is itself under strain. The IRB had an inventory of 175,800 claims ready to be heard as of March 2025, with hearings backed up by years in some cases. US claimants enter that queue alongside the larger volumes from countries such as Haiti (14,192 referred in 2025), India (17,835), and Mexico (5,385).
What gets harder to measure from here
Two policy developments narrow the picture. Canada’s Bill C-12, introduced in October 2025, would block claims from people in Canada more than a year and let the government cancel immigration documents more freely. Amnesty International has urged its withdrawal.
On the US side, the Williams Institute reported in February 2026 that roughly 360 federal data collections had dropped at least one sexual orientation or gender identity measure since Jan. 20, 2025. US asylum claims in Canada are accelerating just as the federal government stops collecting demographic data that would help identify who is filing them. The IRB tracks the country of persecution. It can’t tell us much else.
