TORONTO - Canada has stepped up deportations of migrants this year as a surge of asylum seekers enter the country illegally from the United States.

  

Canada Border Services Agency said Thursday there have been a total of 5,529 deportations compared to 7,357 in all of 2016.

  

The number of deportations to Mexico jumped from 433 last year to 719 this year as of Tuesday. Canada waived a visa requirement for Mexicans last December.

  

Deportations to Haiti have surged to 474 this year from 100 for all of last year. More than 80 percent of the migrants entering Canada in recent weeks are Haitian.

  

More 4,000 migrants have crossed into Canada illegally in the last three weeks, straining the system to the point where officials turned a domed stadium into a makeshift shelter.