FILE PHOTO: Flags fly above the Peace Arch, at a Canada-U.S. border crossing known as the Peace Arch Border Crossing in Blaine, Washington, U.S. April 2, 2025. REUTERS/David Ryder/File Photo

By Anna Mehler Paperny

TORONTO (Reuters) -More Americans applied for refugee status in Canada in the first half of 2025 than in all of 2024, and more than in any full year since 2019, according to data published on Thursday by Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board.

Their share of total refugee claims - 245 of about 55,000 - is small and Canada's acceptance of U.S. refugee claims has historically been low. Asylum-seekers from other countries crossing the land border from the U.S. are sent back under a bilateral agreement with the reasoning that they should apply for asylum in the first "safe" country they arrived in.

Last year 204 people filed refugee claims in Canada with the United States as their country of alleged persecution. Claims from the U.S. also rose during the first Trump administration.

The data does not say why the claims were made. Eight lawyers told Reuters they are hearing from more trans Americans wanting to leave. Reuters spoke with a trans woman from Arizona who came to Canada in April to file a claim, and to a woman who came to file a claim on behalf of her young trans daughter.

U.S. President Donald Trump and the U.S. Supreme Court have rolled back trans rights, restricting who can access gender-affirming care, who can serve in the military, who can use what bathroom and who can play in some sports.

To gain asylum, refugees must convince Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board that nowhere in the U.S. is safe for them.

The Board recently added documents from groups such as Human Rights Watch examining the U.S.'s treatment of LGBTQ people to its national documentation package detailing country conditions.

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said people claiming refugee status in Canada would create room for individuals "facing actual fear and persecution."

(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Sandra Maler)