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TORONTO/MONTREAL (Reuters) - The number of asylum seekers who illegally crossed the U.S. border into Canada more than tripled last month, according to Canadian government data released on Thursday, as migrants worried about the U.S. administration's immigration crackdown head north.

More than 3,100 people walked across the border illegally in July to file refugee claims and were arrested, up from 884 in June, the federal government said.

Ninety-six percent of them went to Quebec, where an influx of asylum seekers, primarily Haitians, is sparking a backlash from opposition politicians and anti-immigrant groups in the primarily French-speaking province.

In the first 15 days of August, an additional 3,800 asylum seekers were arrested crossing the U.S. border into Quebec, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. More than 1,000 people are living in tents and government facilities at a Lacolle, Quebec border crossing across from upstate New York.

"It's not a crisis. It's a situation that is extraordinary. But it's well-managed," Transport Minister Marc Garneau told reporters in Lacolle on Thursday.

Canada is struggling to house and provide social assistance for the influx of asylum seekers as its refugee system faces the worst delays in years.

The Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), which is responsible for hearing all asylum claims, has redeployed resources to deal with the Quebec arrivals.

"The IRB had to make adjustments to be in a position to respond to the current situation that is clearly unsustainable," spokeswoman Anna Pape said in an email.

Canada has launched a campaign to counter misinformation about the country's refugee policy, which is believed to be one reason for the influx of refugees.

"Asking for asylum in Canada is not a guarantee for permanent residence in Canada, and it's extremely important we stress that," immigration ministry spokesman Louis Dumas told reporters.

Conservative parliamentarian Michelle Rempel, her party's immigration critic, said the government steps are a "band aid" solution.

"This situation started with Prime Minister [Justin] Trudeau's irresponsible tweets and he has a responsibility to fix it," Rempel said in a statement, referring to January tweets Trudeau sent touting Canada's welcome of refugees after a U.S. travel ban was unveiled.

A Trudeau spokesman said the government has been consistent on the issue of refugees: "Canada welcomes immigrants ... that said, there are laws and processes in place for people seeking asylum and our government is sending a clear message."

Many of the most recent asylum seekers arriving in Quebec have been Haitians who face looming deportation from the United States when their temporary protected status expires in January 2018.

Canada ended its own ban on deportations to Haiti last summer. In the first quarter of this year, almost two-thirds of Haitian refugee claims were rejected, according to government figures.

The spike in asylum seekers has sparked protests by anti-migrant groups who say Canada is being soft on law-breakers.

The Montreal suburb of Boucherville has received dozens of messages on social media denouncing the asylum seekers, some of whom are being housed at a former seniors home in the quiet suburb, according to local media reports. Montreal, Quebec's biggest city, opened its Olympic Stadium to house the arrivals.

Sylvain Brouillette, a spokesman for right-wing extremist group La Meute, which is organizing a Quebec City protest on Sunday, said his group is protesting the "policies of the Trudeau government toward illegal immigration."

Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny and Allison Lampert; editing by Lisa Shumaker and Dan Grebler

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Canada sees 'unsustainable' spike in asylum seekers at US border - Reuters

Vice President Mike Pence extended his sympathies to those affected by the terrorist attack in Barcelona, Spain, on Thursday and vowed the United States would help "find and punish" those responsible.

"The latest scenes of carnage and mayhem sicken us all. As the president said earlier today, the United States condemns this terror attack and we will do whatever is necessary to help," Pence said Thursday during remarks at the Panama Canal.

"Whatever inspired today's terror attack, the United States stands ready to assist the people of Spain and find and punish those responsible," he continued. "On this dark day, our prayers and the prayers of all the American people are with the victims, their families and the good people of Spain."

At least 13 people died and 80 were injured after a person drove a white van into pedestrians in the Las Ramblas district of Barcelona.

The area is a large, pedestrian tourist district with shops and stalls.

Videos and photos from the scene showed people lying on the ground in the area where the attack took place.

Local police released a photo of a man, identified as 28-year-old Driss Oukabir, who is believed to have rented the van used in the attack. Oukabir is from Morocco and resides in Ripoll, Spain.

After the attack, President Trump and first lady Melania Trump offered their well wishes to those in Barcelona.

"The United States condemns the terror attack in Barcelona, Spain, and will do whatever is necessary to help," Trump tweeted. "Be tough & strong, we love you!"

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Mike Pence: US ready to help 'find and punish' those responsible for Barcelona terror attack - Washington Examiner

Vice President Mike Pence, left, with Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Metropolitan cathedral in Buenos Aires.. (photo credit:AFP PHOTO)

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina Vice President Mike Pence in Argentina commemorated Holocaust victims and those killed in terrorist attacks on Israelis and the Jewish community in 1992 and 1994.

On Tuesday, Pence paid homage to the victims at a memorial in Buenos Aires his first stop during an official visit to Argentina in the Metropolitan cathedral.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the 1992 bombing at the Israeli Embassy in the Argentine capital, which was followed two years later by the AMIA Jewish center bombing the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of Argentina. The two attacks, which Western intelligence agencies said were organized with Iranian support, claimed the lives of 114 people.

Earlier today, it was my great honor to visit a memorial to these victims in the Metropolitan chapel, and breathe a prayer and read a verse in their memory, Pence said.

The vice president landed Sunday in Latin America for a weeklong trip to meet with the leaders of Colombia, Argentina, Chile and Panama.

The threat of terror still looms across our hemisphere, Pence said, and we will stand together to confront it and protect our people from it.

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Mike Pence commemorates Holocaust, terrorism victims in Argentina - The Jerusalem Post

It's a piece of conventional wisdom spouted by both Trump allies and Trump haters:

"You can't figure him out!" Trump supporters say with delight.

"Don't be distracted by his attempts to distract you!" scream his detractors.

The underlying message is the same: Trump is always playing three-dimensional chess while the media covering him is playing checkers. Everything Trump says, does and tweets is part of a grand plan that the press isn't smart enough to understand.

"See!" the three-dimensional chess crowd shouted. "He's doing it! Turning the narrative from one focused on his 'both sides' defense of the violence caused by neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Virginia to one focused on the removal of historic statues!"

Winning the former fight is impossible, they (rightly) note. But winning the latter fight is far more possible.

True! There is far more reasonable disagreement in this country about whether -- and how -- statues of Confederate generals should be removed than there is about whether white supremacists are, um, bad.

But. I would argue that the evidence we have from Trump's life -- in the business world and now in the political sphere -- makes at least as compelling a case that the President is actually playing zero-dimensional chess. Or in other words, he's not playing chess at all. Or checkers for that matter.

Consider this anecdote via Trump's seminal book "Art of the Deal."

Two sentences really jump out to me: 1) "I play it very loose" and 2) "I prefer to come to work each day and just see what develops."

It's reasonable to assume that Trump's approach to business (and life) in the 1980s is not dissimilar to his approach to politics and life in 2017. (Trump was 41 when "Art of the Deal" came out in November 1987. He's 71 now.) Everything else about his persona has only become more heightened since then, so why not this too?

Seen though that lens, Trump's candidacy and presidency take on a different tinge.

Rather than executing a brilliant long-term plan to take advantage of voters' discontent with the status quo and too-careful politicians, Trump just as likely sort of happened into his positioning in the race: as the anti-establishment, anti-political correctness, anti-polite figure that Republican voters were craving.

Ditto Trump's approach in the White House. A convincing case can be made that Trump's strategy, such as it exists, is to say provocative things -- and then react to the reaction to what he said. That there isn't any secret plan beyond being in the moment, dominating the news and making sure, no matter what, that people are talking about him.

Could Trump truly be playing a game so sophisticated that no one can fully understand it but him? I suppose. But the most obvious answer is usually the right one. And if you take Trump's word for how he lives his life, the most obvious answer is that Trump in the White House is doing what he's done his whole life: just winging it.

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What if Donald Trump is just winging it? - CNN

President Donald Trumpissued an explosive statement against Radical Islamic Terrorjust hours after anattack in Barcelona, Spain,on Thursday left at least 13 people dead.

Earlier this week, Trump said he needed to get allthe factsbefore singling out hate groups for condemnation after violent protests sparked by a white supremacist rally left one woman dead in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday.

Trump initially posted a measured response to the incident in Barcelona:

Less than an hour after his initial tweet, Trump followed up, implying the Barcelona attack was linked to Radical Islamic Terror:

During the Republican presidential primary race, Trump told crowds a story a false one, according to historians about John Black Jack Pershing, the Army general who commanded U.S. forces in World War I. According to Mother Jones,Trump spoke of Pershing executing Muslim insurgents in the Philippines in the early 1900s with bullets dipped in pigs blood and eliminating a problem for 25 years (unlike the 35 years mentioned in his tweet):

He caught 50 terrorists who did tremendous damageand he took the 50 terrorists and he took 50 men and dipped 50 bullets in pigs blood. You heard about that? He took 50 bullets and dipped them in pigs blood [which is considered haram]. And he has his men load up their rifles and he lined up the 50 people and they shot 49 of those people. And the 50th person, he said, you go back to your people and you tell them what happened. And for 25 years there wasnt a problem.

After telling that story, Trump claimedweve got to start getting tough and weve got to start being vigilant and weve got to start using our heads or were not gonna have a country, folks.

As Time reported in 2016, historians know of no evidence to support Trumps claim. The magazine quoted one saying it would have been out of character for Pershing.

Trumps comments on Barcelona came just hours after news broke of the carnage there, which police confirmed they were treating as a terrorist attack. The so-called Islamic State claimed responsibility for the assault via its Amaq news agency, but its unclear to what degree the groups leadership was involved in planning it.

White House chief of staff John Kelly briefed Trump on the matter Thursdayafternoon.

Trumps quick response sharply contrasts with his reactionsto the violence in Charlottesville.

Trump argued in hisinitial response on Saturday thatmany sides were to blame for the tumult, which erupted amid a white supremacist protest against efforts to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. The president didntexplicitly condemn hate groupsuntil Monday,two days after a car allegedly driven by a white supremacist plowed into a group of counterprotesters, killing a 32-year-old woman.

In a rambling press conference Tuesday, Trump defended his initial statement,arguing he needed to get the facts before making more definitive remarks against racist groups.

I wanted to make sure, unlike most politicians, that what I said was correct, not make a quick statement. The statement I made on Saturday, the first statement, was a fine statement, but you dont make statements that direct unless you know the facts, Trump said Tuesday. It takes a little while to get the facts. You still dont know the facts. It is a very, very important process to me. It is a very important statement. So I dont want to go quickly and just make a statement for the sake of making a political statement. I want to know the facts.

Trump on Tuesday also again blamed both sides for the clashes in Charlottesville. You had a group on one side that was bad. You had a group on the other side that was also very violent, Trump said. Nobody wants to say that. Ill say it right now.

But Trump has been quick to cite radical Islamic terrorism for attacks in the past. It took him less than a day to respond to terrorist attacks in Paris, Manchester, England, and London, the last of which he used as a reason to plug his proposal for a travel ban from several Muslim-majority countries.

His rhetoric toward radical Islam is often violent and sweeping, unlike his comments on the white supremacist and racist groups who gathered for the rally in Charlottesville,which Trump claimed had some fine people.

As Vox has pointed out, Trump has been generally slow to respond to violent incidents where Muslims are the victims.

Trump also has claimed he can predict terrorism, saying he can feel it. After a gunman who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State attacked a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in June 2016, killing 49 and wounding scores more, Trump bragged about being right on radical Islamic terrorism.

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Trump's Quick Response To Barcelona Attack Makes His Charlottesville Reactions Look Even Worse - HuffPost