The Biden border crisis has spread to the U.S. northern border with Canada. The number of illegal immigrants crossing into Canada has gotten so out of control that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Biden have reached an agreement about asylum-seekers.

We have written here about the growing border crisis on the northern border. Illegal immigrants are taking a chance on getting into the United States through Canada to claim asylum. Illegal border crossings from Canada into New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont have increased ten times higher than in previous years.

An agreement was announced Thursday between Trudeau and Biden, the same day Joe and Jill Biden traveled to visit Trudeau in Ottawa. It’s a short visit – only 24 hours long – but it is meant to show that the two countries are cooperating on a serious problem. While news reports of the agreement and meeting are highlighting the friendship between Trudeau and Biden and calling it the “Justin and Joe” relationship, Trudeau may have had an icy relationship with the previous president but he didn’t have a border crisis to worry about. The previous administration sealed up the porous southern border much better than Biden, a president who doesn’t even try to secure the southern border. Biden likes to wax poetic about knowing Trudeau’s father, a former Canadian prime minister, so there’s that. Sleepy Joe likes socialists.

So, the deal between Canada and the United States allows both countries to divert asylum seekers from their borders. It’s all about a show of unity.

The deal, which is set to be announced Friday by President Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau after the two leaders meet in Ottawa, will allow Canada to turn back immigrants at Roxham Road, a popular unofficial crossing point from New York for migrants seeking asylum in Canada.

In exchange, Canada has agreed to provide a new, legal refugee program for 15,000 migrants who are fleeing violence, persecution and economic devastation in South and Central America, the official said, lessening the pressure of illegal crossings into the United States from Mexico.

Typically, when a new president comes into office, a trip to Canada is the first international trip made. This is Biden’s first trip to meet with Trudeau in Canada since he came into office. Biden prefers to travel back and forth to Pennsylvania, as he has for 40% of his presidency so far. As much as Biden wants to exhibit a good ole boy, back-slapping kind of relationship with the younger Trudeau, there are some prickly issues that the two leaders will have to tackle. There are differences in approaches on how to stabilize Haiti, and the global race to develop critical minerals needed to make batteries and other technology.

The agreement on asylum-seekers will likely anger Biden supporters who are advocates for refugees.

Mr. Trudeau’s government has been pushing for months to expand a 2004 migration treaty with the United States that limits how many asylum seekers Canada can turn away at its border and send back to the United States.

The treaty only allows Canada to turn back a migrant — for example, someone fleeing violence in El Salvador — if the person crosses at an official port of entry between the two countries. Crossings at unofficial points of entry like Roxham Road have surged in the past several years, putting pressure on Mr. Trudeau to limit them.

(Asylum seekers who come from other countries by plane or by ship are not covered by the agreement regardless of where they enter. They are comparatively few in number and, in many cases, are detained until their hearings.)

The Biden administration has been resisting a change in the treaty until recently. However, with the crisis exploding on the Canadian border, the two sides had to come together to work something out.

For Mr. Biden, the deal could help lessen the record number of migrants who have surged toward the southern U.S. border through Mexico, driven by political instability across the region and economic changes that have increased poverty.

The idea is that the agreement would divert up to 15,000 migrants each year from that dangerous trek, leaving the Biden administration with fewer migrants to turn away.

At the northern U.S. border, the agreement will allow Canada to turn back to the United States migrants who have decided to try their luck with the Canadian asylum system rather than to win protection in the United States.

The problem is that all the illegal immigrants try to claim asylum, though very few will qualify for it. Economic hardship is not a qualifying reason for asylum in the United States. This new refugee program (note they are not called asylum-seekers) allows for economic hardship as a reason for refuge. And, 15,000? That’s a drop in the bucket in the time of Biden’s border crisis. There are often 15,000 illegal immigrants crossing the border into the U.S. in a week. Canada agreeing to ease the U.S. burden by 15,000 is nothing.

But, Biden and Trudeau will shake hands and smile for the cameras and everyone will feel good. That is all this will amount to.

Canada has been known for its lenient welcoming of migrants into the country. That attitude is changing now, though, because Canadians are being smacked by reality. Biden has created a situation on the southern border that creates chaos throughout North America. Canada is feeling the effects now and suddenly Canadian officials want to tighten up restrictions. Funny how that happens.