it's an interesting ruling, and clear demonstration that you don't need to be a citizen in this country to have rights.

generally speaking, a candidate will be able to successfully claim refugee status here if they can convincingly argue that they are risk of inhumane treatment when returned to their home country. the basis of the agreement is that this isn't of serious concern when speaking of the united states, so that can be discarded a priori; instead, we will just return applicants when they appear.

opening up refugee status to americans like this presents a potential "floodgate of litigation" type scenario. we might grant people refugee status for a wide array of concerns, from escaping conscription to concerns about capital punishment to even avoiding prosecution for drug-related convictions. i believe that the actual purpose of the agreement had more to do with claims of this sort than with the types of claims that people may be imagining, right now.

but, that is because the types of thing people are imagining are legitimately novel. it saddens me to think that our court system is being forced to consider the ramifications of returning people to the united states because they may be tortured in prison. that's a very sad day for the united states of america.

but, insofar as that is true, we certainly should not be treating the united states differently; if people really are getting tortured in domestic prisons in the united states, we need to weigh sending people into their system the same way we view sending people to oppressive regimes, like iran.

if the government wants to keep the actual purpose of the legislation in place, it may help to rewrite it to be more specific. i'm actually on the side of people fleeing conscription, but i'm less excited about being a safe haven for drug traffickers. so, i would respond to the ruling by clarifying the legislation, rather than abolishing it, or appealing the ruling. and, i'm not entirely sure how i'd clarify it - i might have to think that through very carefully, and spend some time explicitly studying it, first.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7205230/federal-court-rules-canada-u-s-safe-third-country-agreement-unconstitutional/