Canada Welcomes Refugees From Muslim Countries For Which Trump Closed US Doors 

As chaos reigned at American airports one day after President Donald Trump temporarily barred all refugees from the United States, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a starkly different message.

Soon, politicians of all stripes were expressing their support for helping out anyone affected by the American ban, and the #WelcometoCanada hashtag started to trend on Twitter.

Canada has accepted more than 39,000 Syrian refugees since Trudeau took office, with the prime minister making international headlines when he personally welcomed the first plane load of government sponsored Syrians fleeing the war torn country.

While Trudeau’s promise was met with acclaim online, actually turning words into action might be tougher. Under Canadian immigration law, “refugee claimants are required to request refugee protection in the first safe country they arrive in,” a Citizenship and Immigration website explains — meaning that any refugee who lands in America, but is turned away, is technically ineligible for refugee status in Canada, barring some exceptions. VICE News reported earlier Saturday that calls are growing to scrap that rule.

Under Trump’s rules, it’s two of his ministers — Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen, born in Somalia; and Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef, born in Iran to Afghan parents — would technically be banned from entering America, since Trump has closed the US border to citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries. Scores of Canadian dual citizens from the singled out states could be caught by the ban as well.

By Saturday night, however, sources from Trudeau’s office told media that Trump’s team had promised that no Canadians with citizenship in one of the banned countries would be effected by the policy.