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View looking south towards the Peace Bridge that spans the Niagara River, between Fort Erie, Ontario and Buffalo, New York.Fred Lum/the Globe and Mail

A migrant who attempted to enter Canada illegally from the U.S. by jumping off a moving freight train was apprehended last month, along with two smugglers, in an intelligence operation near Niagara that is part of Canada’s response to pressure from the U.S. to bolster security at the border.

The migrant was detained as part of the operation designed to disrupt human smuggling along the International Railway Bridge in the Niagara region of Ontario, according to the Canada Border Services Agency and RCMP.

The person attempted to run away in Fort Erie, a town on the Niagara River directly across the Canada–United States border from Buffalo. The person, whose identity has not been revealed, was caught by RCMP and border officers and arrested under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act for entering Canada illegally. Two suspected smugglers were also apprehended nearby and taken into custody for questioning.

The individual who jumped from the train, was later returned to the U.S. under the Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States. Under the agreement, most people claiming asylum who come here from the U.S. are sent back on the grounds that it is a safe place to live. There are some exceptions; for example, if a person faces the death penalty if they are sent back.

Last month the CBSA launched Project Disrupt and Deter, an intelligence initiative monitoring areas vulnerable to people slipping across the border in the Niagara region, including by train. The intelligence-based operation is focused on disrupting human-smuggling operations.

Project Disrupt and Deter is part of a larger initiative dubbed Project Northstar, a national intelligence and enforcement strategy. Project Northstar positions the CBSA and the RCMP to develop early warning and monitoring to respond to any increases in irregular northbound movements, whether by port of entry or between the ports.

Canada has been under pressure to boost security at the border after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian goods unless it does more to stop people crossing the shared frontier into the U.S., and do more to curb fentanyl smuggling, even though less than 1 per cent of fentanyl in the United States comes from this country.

Canada last month launched a $1.3-billion border-enforcement plan, which will take place over six years. Some of the measures include the leasing of two sophisticated Black Hawk helicopters to patrol the entire border from bases in Ottawa and Manitoba, and the purchase of more drones.

Public Safety Minister David McGuinty and Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly are in Washington this week for talks with senior members of the Trump administration about border security and tariffs.

Mr. McGuinty said in a statement that the apprehensions were evidence that Canada’s border plan “is working.”

Michael Prosia, regional director-general for the CBSA’s Southern Ontario Region, said the joint CBSA and RCMP investigation had stopped the human-smuggling attempt between Niagara and Fort Erie.

He said the operation involved front-line border services officers, and regional officers in the CBSA’s Intelligence and Enforcement Operations Division, who worked with the RCMP.

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