When River and Theo Berg loaded their five children into a car and set out for the US-Canada border, they were in search of a sanctuary from the America shaped by Donald Trump’s presidency, hoping to carve out a better future.
Fast forward a year, and the couple finds themselves without employment and reliant on charity alongside River’s Veterans Affairs disability payments. They share a cramped two-bedroom apartment, burdened by a $10,000 debt.
Nonetheless, they insist they have no regrets. Despite the challenges, they feel a greater sense of security away from the US and have no intention of returning.
On March 3 of the previous year, the family of seven departed the US. As they approached the border, the agents were puzzled by the couple’s extensive list of reasons for seeking asylum in Canada, notably the safety concerns for their gender-fluid and transgender children, Wren, aged 13, and Milo, aged 14.
Though the agents allowed them to cross without passports, they cautioned that it was uncommon for Americans to gain asylum status successfully.
If you had asked River, who now identifies as nonbinary, a few years ago if they’d be sleeping on used furniture in the living room of a two-bedroom apartment instead of their gorgeous three-bedroom Illinois home, they probably would have told you no.
But that’s the reality for the mother, who is currently suffering their eighth miscarriage on top of it all, just a year into their asylum claim.
‘We’re not living the life of luxury,’ they told the Daily Mail. ‘We knew this was going to be hard.’
River and Theo Berg packed their five kids into the car and drove to the US-Canadian border to claim asylum on March 3, 2025
One of the reasons they left the US was to protect their transgender son, Milo, (pictured) and their gender-fluid child Wren
Both parents are currently jobless and relying on the generosity of their new community to get by
The family has settled in London, Ontario, and is now navigating a whole new governmental system, including Ontario Works, a welfare program for those living in the province.
‘Does it help? Yes. Is it sustainable and livable? No, it’s not,’ the mother candidly said.
Currently, neither parent is working as River navigates their health problems. Theo found a part-time job at FedEx, but that has since fallen through. He is now trying to pick up handyman jobs to help the family stay afloat.
The only income the couple currently has is River’s VA disability checks. The family has not received Ontario Works checks since November, and are waiting to get back on it.
Both River and Theo are military veterans and proudly served their country, which they said made their decision to leave the US even harder.
They went from paying $800 a month for a rent-to-own house that had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large backyard and a basement to paying $1,640 CAD (roughly $1,200 USD) for a two-bedroom that doesn’t quite feel like home yet.
‘I miss home,’ River admitted. ‘And not even just – there’s no home in particular, but just the familiarity. I grew up in the US, it’s what I grew up with.
‘But at the same time, I would gladly do it again. I would go back a year and do the same thing, I would not change it.’
The family has found themselves accumulating around $10,000 worth of debt since their move, mainly due to people reporting the family after seeing River’s TikTok videos about their journey.
They also decided to leave the US due to River’s health problems
After moving to Canada, River also discovered they were nonbinary
They falsely claimed the parents were abusing their children, making loads of money off TikTok, and driving while intoxicated.
‘It’s totally false,’ River told the Daily Mail.
Their social worker was able to quickly dismiss the claims. However, that didn’t stop the temporary pause on benefits each time, forcing the family to pile their debt on credit cards to survive.
‘I’m tired of people scaring me from telling my story,’ River said. They have largely stopped posting on TikTok about their journey.
And despite receiving some welfare to help pay for groceries, the Berg family is not eligible to receive child benefits like others normally would through Ontario Works or refugee benefits.
In the US, they would have been eligible for SNAP or WIC, but they cannot in Canada, making the country’s high-priced groceries an even bigger burden.
They have resorted to neighborhood apps, like Facebook groups and Nextdoor, to ask locals for help and to take any grocery items their neighbors may not need.
Their Easter dinner was funded by their kind-hearted neighbors, who brought them a ham and cupcakes.
The family now lives in a two-bedroom apartment (pictured) in London, Ontario. The parents sleep in the living room
The children share the two rooms, which are filled to the brim with their favorite things, like stuffed animals and posters. Milo and Wren are pictured inside their room
There’s a bed on the floor of the living room. ‘We’re not living the life of luxury,’ the mother told the Daily Mail
The hallways of their Canadian home are filled with art the children made
River and Theo are pictured with their family, including two of Theo’s children from a previous relationship
‘We didn’t have anything,’ the mother told the Daily Mail. ‘We’re very thankful.’
They’ve gone to food banks and churches for help. All the furniture in their home is used and was largely acquired through Facebook Marketplace.
It’s a far cry from their life in the US, but none of that would change the parents’ decision to leave America behind – they believe their life in Canada is still safer than living under Trump’s ‘corrupt’ thumb.
River said the US political scene has ‘gotten worse.’
During a previous interview in March 2025, River told the Daily Mail that those who are ‘not white, not male,’ will ‘be a target,’ adding that they believed the country was ‘literally going to be Nazi Germany.’
They still stand by that statement, but believe things have deteriorated even further.
‘I don’t even think it’s male and white [anymore]. I think it’s more of the upper class and the government – the corrupt government,’ they said.
‘Would white males be more protected in the long run? Yes, but also, I feel like just because they’re not coming for you now doesn’t mean they won’t come for you [later].’
They left behind their ‘forever’ home in Illinois, which had three bedrooms and a large backyard
Much like their apartment, their home was full of little trinkets that represent the family
Their transgender son, Milo, is talking about potentially going on hormone replacement therapy as part of his transition. It’s something that he might not have had access to in America.
‘In the US, he wouldn’t even be able to think about it until 18,’ the veteran said. ‘And even then, who knows what the laws will be.’
Twenty-seven states across the US have enacted laws that have limited youth access to transgender healthcare. The majority are located in the South and Great Plains, including Florida and Texas, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
River’s home state of Illinois has not enacted any policies that would limit children from accessing transgender-specific healthcare – although surrounding states have – which could hinder their asylum claim.
Despite the detractors calling River a ‘pedophile’ for supporting their son’s transition, they continue to support his decision.
River reiterated that they are not pushing their son to fully physically transition as a minor. That conversation will wait until he’s an adult. But since he came out as transgender at the age of 12, they have made an effort to have informative conversations with him.
Since moving to Canada, the mother has also come to terms with their own nonbinary identity.
Now, River also exists in a gray area within the US, and so does their healthcare. River said their seventh miscarriage, which took place in the US, left them rattled and fearing what was to come for women’s and LGBTQ+ healthcare.
River said their new life is a far cry from their life in the US, but none of that would change the parents’ decision to leave America behind, as they believe it is still safer than living under Donald Trump’s ‘corrupt’ thumb
Border agents were confused at their asylum request, but let them through, warning them that Americans rarely made successful claims
They went to three hospitals after having more than 40 blood clots, only to be told that their Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG), the pregnancy hormone, was at zero. They claim they were dismissed by doctors and told they were crazy.
‘The thing is, I had progesterone issues, so as soon as I start bleeding, it leaves my body pretty quickly,’ they told the Daily Mail. ‘I was sick, I was throwing up, and they were not helping me at all, and it was just really horrible.
‘So, I’m afraid for my life if I were to go back to the US.’
The family wants to have another child. River is documenting new US laws and bills that could potentially harm them reproductively if they were to return to America to help build their case before Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB).
Ohio recently proposed a state house bill that would force women to get a fetal life certificate once a heartbeat is detected. If the mother were to miscarry, have a stillbirth or get an abortion, they would have to get a fetal death certificate.
In December, Texas signed into law a policy that restricts access to abortion-producing drugs, no longer allowing it to be mailed to patients in the already very restrictive state.
River said their friends in Canada don’t understand why Americans don’t stand up against the Trump Administration, but the mother-of-seven argued it’s not that easy.
‘I know there’s protests and things like that, but also at the same time, I can’t stay there and fight,’ they said. ‘And I already did my dues being in the Army.
‘I have my children, and if anything were to happen to me there, they won’t have me.’
The family has started a GoFundMe page and an Amazon Wishlist to help with their children and expenses as they await an IRB hearing to see if their petition for asylum is successful.
The Berg family’s wait time has dropped considerably after Canada passed the Strong Borders Act (SBA) late last month.
At its peak, they were estimated to wait 60 months – five years – before going before the IRB. Now, it’s under 12 months.
The SBA essentially bars Americans from making a claim at the border, and any non-American will be turned away until they can prove the US denied their claim there due to the Safe Third Country Act (STCA).
The law states that an asylum seeker must claim refuge in the first safe country they come upon. So a Mexican native traveling through land borders would have to claim in the US and be denied before being able to make a claim in Canada.
In tandem with the STCA, the Strong Borders Act essentially forbids asylum claims from people entering through the US-Canada border, as they will ‘continue to be returned to the US,’ the Canadian government said. It backdates to June 3.
The STCA doesn’t affect Americans, as they already live in a country Canada designates as safe. However, it thwarts most of their asylum claims anywhere because of that.
Berg told the Daily Mail there was no way the family would return to the US and they don’t regret their decision. ‘I would gladly do it again. I would go back a year and do the same thing, I would not change it,’ they said
If their claim is denied, they don’t know what they’ll do, but they do know one thing for certain: ‘We’re not going to go back to the US’
‘Canada’s asylum system is not a shortcut to immigrate to Canada,’ Jeffrey MacDonald, an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) spokesperson, told the Daily Mail.
‘Claim referral to the IRB doesn’t guarantee that a person will be granted protection and allowed to stay in Canada long-term. Asylum claimants must prove that they have a well-founded fear of persecution or face a risk of serious harm in their home country or where they usually live.’
The IRB does, however, take into account ‘well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, political opinion, nationality or membership in a particular social group,’ as well as those who ‘are at risk of torture, or cruel or unusual punishment,’ MacDonald said.
An increasing number of American citizens are claiming asylum in Canada since Trump retook office. More than 1,800 did in 2025, the Daily Mail exclusively revealed.
The Berg family’s case will be a landmark case if approved, as only four Americans have ever been granted refuge in Canada outside of war times. Three were minors, while the fourth was a gay activist who left the country before his claim was fully processed.
If their claim is denied, the Berg family does not know what they’ll do, but they do know one thing for certain: ‘We’re not going to go back to the US.’
‘Honestly, we knew the risk that [a denial] could happen, and we decided to go with the risk anyway, because it’s better to try and to keep my kids safe than to not try and be stuck.’
The couple will find out six weeks beforehand when they are due to go before the IRB. In the meantime, the family is prepping their statements and collecting community statements from American and Canadian friends to vouch for their case.
More than 1,800 Americans fled the US for Canada in 2025, the first year of Trump’s second term
‘I have to prepare my 14-year-old, who has autism and ADHD. [He’s] very high functioning, but he hates talking in front of people,’ River told the Daily Mail.
‘I have expressed to him how important it is for him to talk and to tell a story, and to tell how it would affect him if he could not be who he wanted to be, and get the help he would need.’
River pointed to the statistics about declining mental health among LGBTQ+ youths in the US, especially those who do not have access to gender affirming healthcare.
With laws becoming more restrictive, the Trevor Project found there was a 72 percent spike in suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary youths.
‘I don’t want to ever lose a kid over that,’ River said.
In fact, they’re so serious about keeping their children out of the US, the parents have made a backup plan they hope to never use: to turn their children over to child services in Canada if they are forced to return home.
‘There’s no way they’re going back,’ the mother said.
