According to one immigration expert, relaxed Canadian visa requirements could be causing an uptick in Romanian illegal immigrants crossing the border to the United States.

“First of all, the reason they’re coming from Canada is that Canada lifted visa requirements for Romanians in 2017, I believe,” Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, told Fox News Digital. “So it’s a lot simpler to get to Canada than it is to here if you’re a Romanian. And so then you sneak over the border. And why don’t you stay in Canada instead of come here? I don’t know.”

U.S. Customs and Border Protection data from the Houlton Sector in Maine shows Romanians made up less than 1% of border crossings in fiscal 2023. In fiscal 2024, that number increased to nearly 12%. Out of 344 illegal crossings in the sector, 40 people were identified as Romanian nationals.

A chart from the Center for Immigration Studies shows the foreign-born population in the U.S. over the last few presidential administrations. (Center for Immigration Studies)

Krikorian said that as a result, the number of illegal Romanian immigrants will drop, but the number of legal Romanian entrants will rise, some of whom will overstay their visas.

“So illegal immigration of Romanians will just switch, will transform from border jumpers to visa over-stayers,” he said.