Just before dawn, a Greyhound bus wheels into a gas station at Plattsburgh, N.Y.
In the misty darkness, taxis circle, knowing they'll get fares. The passengers who are struggling off the bus, sleepy from the overnight ride from New York City, are eager to get to the border with Quebec 45 kilometres away.
A couple of kids pull thin blue blankets around them to ward off the early morning chill.
This group of Nigerians — about 12 of them — have made their way to the start of Plattsbugh's pipeline to Canada. It's a one way-route out of the U.S. at an unofficial border crossing that the Canadian government can't seem to plug.
It is the busiest crossing in Canada and growing still. In August, despite government efforts to staunch the flow, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada says that 5,530 more asylum seekers entered Quebec near Plattsburgh, nearly double those in July and bringing the total in 2017 to 11,896.
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In August, as the numbers swelled at this crossing near LaColle, Que., Prime Minister Justin Trudeau launched an offensive to tamp down expectations, stamp out myths and plug the flow of asylum seekers flooding into Canada.
Many then were Haitians. The federal government even sent an MP to Miami to persuade those in the Haitian community not to come north.
But this month, flights from Florida to Plattsburgh are still arriving, bringing asylum seekers.
The numbers are nudging down, say the taxi drivers, who've seen a healthy uptick in business.
But a steady stream of migrants from other communities are hearing about the crossing and betting their futures on it.
Under the Safe Third Country Agreement between the U.S. and Canada, an asylum seeker must appeal for refugee status in the first country of arrival. In these cases, that would be the U.S.
But there is an exception if a migrant crosses into another country (Canada) at a place other than an official border crossing.
That allows for the bizarre and dramatic scene playing out every day at the dead end of Roxham Road north of Plattsburgh.
The RCMP has been forced to staff a temporary satellite detachment with four teams monitoring the crossing 24/7.
They've set up large white winterized tents, a trailer and equipment for processing migrants. Buses also transport asylum seekers to another tented camp in Lacolle, Que.
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"This is an illegal crossing. The official border crossing is a few kilometres from here," shouts RCMP Cpl. Laurette Jones as she stands behind a metal barricade that crudely marks the border.
A metre of dirt, well worn with the tread of suitcases, separates the countries.
"Are you aware the very minute you cross this border your status in the U.S. is nullified," Jones yells at the huddle of people, children in their arms, clutching their suitcases.
"We know. We want to come into Canada. Canada will help us. We have nowhere else to go," members of the group yell back.
"We believe in Canada," shouts one man, as one by one they wrestle their suitcases through the dirt to the waiting RCMP.
Some have temporary visas for the U.S. including tourist visas, but others have outrun their legal stay in the U.S.
Lillian, who didn't give her last name, has a 22-month-old son strapped to her back, fast asleep. Her baby was born in the U.S. and is therefore a citizen but she is not. Her visa expired last July.
"I went to search Google and I figured out this is what everybody is doing, that Canada has a future for the children, for everybody, so that's why I want to give it a chance," she said.
"It's a risk I understand that," she said, but "Donald Trump don't want me to stay in the United States. He said he doesn't want immigrants."
Colin Read, a transplanted Canadian who is mayor of Plattsburgh, said the city started seeing "this large influx of people coming though" almost immediately after last year's U.S. presidential election.
Historically, Plattsburgh was part of the Underground Railway for American slaves making their way north to Canada. The city's become a kind of sanctuary again.
"We have no reason to see it abating right now," said Read. "It seems like there is one wave after another of groups concerned about their status."
Immigrants from a raft of countries under temporary protected status in the U.S. are worried they'll be kicked out next year, when the Trump administration renews or cancels agreements that are due to expire this winter and next spring.
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In Plattsburgh, taxi driver Joe Ramistalla has made a fistful of money from the upsurge in fares to the border. And he's got lots to say about what's going on.
"I coach them," he says, referring to the families he transports to the border. "I get yelled at a lot from your [Canadian] border folks, but I don't care. Some of these families really need help."
He says asylum seekers often give him a card with a phone number and plead with him to phone their families once they've set foot in Canada.
"I phone. Sometimes they break down crying and sometimes they say: 'Uncle Joe, he's going to be there next Friday.' I get a lot of that."
Ramistalla says there is a network of drivers who charge large sums to bring people from large cities on the Eastern Seaboard up to Plattsburgh and then call local drivers to take them on the last leg to the border.
"We call them runners. They come up from Manhattan. They'll charge 1,500 bucks per cab. And they'll meet us here at the airport, we do the exchange."
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On the U.S. side, Brad Brant, a supervisor with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, says handling the volume of "northbounders" is pulling patrolling resources from other parts of the border where New York, New Hampshire and Vermont butt up against Quebec.
"There are a bunch of guys [RCMP] here who aren't patrolling the rest of the border we share together that is our border to secure. They can't help us if they are focused here, so both countries pay a cost for it."
I do hope she finds a bright future in Canada, though I know we can't always accommodate every single migrant.