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"It's very painful," Mohamed said.

Mohamed and Bashar Yussuf, who is also from Somalia, said they each paid a smuggler $600 to drop them off on the U.S. side of the border near Emerson, leaving them to trudge through the bush for three hours.

"We made it. And we are happy with that," Yussuf said.

The border is patrolled by Royal Canadian Mounted Police. When officers find a person illegally crossing on foot, they arrest and search that person. If the person wants to make a refugee claim, they are taken to a Canada Border Services Agency location to start the process.

Ghezae Hagos, a protection councilor in Winnipeg, helps people fill out forms to become a refugee and said it's getting busier every week. He said the CBSA doesn't let just anyone in -- and claimants have their fingerprints and photos taken.

"If a person has some security problems, or criminal records they will deal with that. Most of the people that have been coming have been screened," Hagos said.

Local officials in Emerson wonder if people with criminal backgrounds could be slipping through.

"We have to make sure that we protect the integrity of our border, and we don't know who always crossing our border. sometimes they got a really good reason to cross the border but sometimes they are also fleeing other things," said Member of Parliament Ted Falk, whose district includes the area.

Some of those who have crossed the border are getting help from Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council, a refugee resettlement agency. The group's executive director, Rita Chahal, said more in-country claims have been filed with her agency since January 1 than most years altogether.

"We need to start preparing even greater numbers," Chanal told CTV.

For more, click: winnipeg.ctvnews.ca

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Small Canadian Town Sees Jump in Illegal Immigration from Minnesota - WDIO-TV