May 9th, 2024 at 05:05 am

Canada is deporting thousands of migrants, despite a pledge to let them stay

According to data obtained by The Breach, the Liberal administration is deporting migrants at an unparalleled rate in comparison to the previous decade, despite promising to enable more undocumented immigrants to stay in the country.

In 2022 and 2023 alone, Canada deported almost 23,000 unauthorized migrants, costing more than $111 million.

It is the largest number of deportations since 2012, when Stephen Harper’s Conservative government deported nearly 19,000 people in a single year.

This contradicts the Liberal government’s December 2021 vow to implement a regularization scheme that would allow more undocumented individuals to remain in the country.

In a mandate letter, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked the federal immigration minister to build on existing programs, such as the Guardian Angels program, which provided asylum seekers working in the health sector during the pandemic with a path to permanent residency, and to “further explore ways of regularizing status for undocumented workers who are contributing to Canadian communities.”

Both the past and current immigration ministers stated that they intended to keep that vow. Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced in December that he was working on a regularization program plan, which he hoped to bring to cabinet this spring.

“The promise remains,” he declared at the time.

Advocates for migrant workers claim the government’s policies are contradictory. They are requesting Ottawa to stop deportations while it develops its regularization scheme.

They believe the program should be broad and comprehensive, allowing thousands of Canadians who live and work here to stay.

Advocates claim millions of dollars were ‘wasted’.

Tarun Godara is one of those targeted for deportation.

Godara first visited Canada as an overseas student from India. After finishing a diploma degree at Cambrian College in Sudbury, Ontario, he decided to settle down.

He’s worked many jobs, paid taxes, made many friends, adopted a dog, and come to accept his sexuality as a gay.

However, last month he was informed that he will be deported from Canada after his attempts to extend his post-graduate work permit failed. Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) had denied his application, which described the dangers and persecution he would face in India as a gay man.

Back home, he claimed, he was blackmailed and assaulted by a former partner, which had a negative impact on his mental state.

Despite this, Godara stated that the IRCC concluded he was not at “risk of persecution, torture, loss of life, or cruel or unusual treatment or punishment if returned to India.”

“I have never felt more dehumanized,” he stated. “I’m literally just an application number.”

Syed Hussan, executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change, said it makes “no sense” for the Trudeau government to spend so much money deporting thousands of individuals while working on a regularization program.

He stated that this is money wasted on “separating people from their families, ripping people away from their communities, and removing workers from the country.”

Gauri Sreenivasan, co-executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, called the government’s position on deportations “incoherent.”

On the other, they’re “seeking to make good on their commitment to regularize the status of hundreds of thousands of people who have been waiting for years for permanent status,” she stated. However, “they are doing nothing to address the deportation of those same people.”

Sreenivasan also stated that the Canadian immigration system “creates vulnerabilities” that allow people to lose their legal immigration status. This includes international students whose student visas have expired, temporary foreign workers fleeing an exploitative or abusive employer with a closed work permit, and victims of human trafficking who are eligible for a temporary resident permit.

Deportations by Numbers

According to federal estimates, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) deported approximately 7,500 persons in 2021, costing more than $43 million.

This number has continuously climbed throughout the years. Almost 8,300 persons were deported in 2022, and approximately 15,000 in 2023, at a cost of $53 million and $58 million per year, respectively.

Noncompliance, a phrase used to characterize individuals residing in Canada without status or studying without authorization, was the most common reason for deportation. This includes those who have overstayed their visa in Canada, as well as refugee claims.

Criminality, which accounted for only 5% of all instances, was the second leading cause.

According to CBSA, the average cost of a “unescorted removal” is roughly $3,800, while a “escorted removal” is about $12,500.

Escorted removals are deportations in which persons are accompanied by CBSA officials for medical reasons or to “minimize risk to the safety and security of the person being removed, the traveling public, and the transportation company personnel.”

The CBSA refused an interview request. In a written statement to The Breach, the agency stated that the decision to expel someone from Canada “is not taken lightly.”

“The removals process plays a critical role in supporting Canada’s immigration and refugee determination system, and contributes to the Government of Canada’s public safety and security priorities,” the statement continued.

When queried about the increase in deportations, CBSA stated that the key reason of the increase in 2023 was the new protocol to the Safe Third Country Agreement, which went into force last March.

This procedure further limits asylum applicants’ capacity to obtain refugee status in Canada.

It specifies that if an individual does not have a family member in Canada, is not an unaccompanied minor, or is not facing the death penalty in their country of origin, Canada may deport them to the United specifies.

‘Time is of the essence’.

There are an estimated half a million illegal people in Canada, but the government is unable to determine the precise number since some of these people may be afraid to come forward, making it more difficult to track them.

In a written statement to The Breach, IRCC stated that it is looking at solutions for regularizing the status of undocumented workers.

“IRCC has been engaging with academic experts and stakeholders to support this work,” the press release stated. “As we advance our work, we will continue listening to experts as well as undocumented migrants themselves.”

The immigration department stated that it will take into consideration lessons learnt from recent regularization programs, including as its 2019 pilot program that allowed 500 out-of-status construction workers in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to obtain permanent residency. In January 2023, the program was expanded to cover 1,000 construction workers in the Greater Toronto Area.

But, time is of the essence. Hussan and Sreenivasan were stressed.

Their groups, the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change and the Canadian Council of Refugees, have called for an urgent halt to deportations in Canada until a regularization program is developed.

“They just need to stop the deportations and implement a comprehensive and inclusive program,” stated Hussan.

Sreenivasan agreed. She stated that this program should give pathways to permanent residence with simple, wide, and obvious criteria so that as few people as possible are excluded, that people can easily understand if they qualify, and that application processing times are reduced.

She also suggested that the program be offered on an ongoing rather than time-limited basis, that documentary requirements be reduced, that CBSA cooperate to ensure that people applying for regularization are not targeted for removal proceedings, and that third-party groups be allowed to assist people with the application process.

“Regularization has proven to be effective throughout Europe. It’s because the forms and procedures were quite simple,” explained Sreenivasan. “You have to recognize that people that have precarious status really face barriers from getting that paperwork done.”

According to David Moffette, a criminology professor at the University of Ottawa who studies the intersection of criminal and immigration law, Canada’s regularization strategy should be broad and not limited to specific industries such as construction and health care, which account for only a small portion of the country’s undocumented population.

He contends that regularizing the status of undocumented immigrants who already live and work in Canada will allow them to establish deeper roots and continue to contribute to the country’s tax base, economy, and society.

“You have two solutions: you spend a lot of money to deport them, or you spend less money to allow them to continue to be doing the great things they are doing anyway without the permits,” he stated.

Waiting for deportation, like a ‘time bomb ticking’

For the time being, Godara’s future is uncertain.

He criticizes the IRCC’s conclusion that he is not at risk of danger or persecution in India. Even if the Supreme Court of India decriminalized same-sex partnerships in 2018, Godara believes Indian society is still far from accepting homosexuality.

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled against legalizing same-sex marriages. Meanwhile, Narendra Modi’s far-right government has stated that same-sex marriages are not “comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife, and children,” further stigmatizing the LGBTQ+ population.

Godara hired a lawyer and requested that his case be judicially examined by the Federal Court. His friends and community have started a GoFundMe campaign to generate funds for the expensive legal struggle and his bills while he waits for the process to be completed.

He expressed gratitude for the assistance he has gotten, but his fear deepens with each passing day.

“Every day is like a time bomb ticking,” he stated.

His goal is that the Canadian government will recognize undocumented people’s contributions and allow them to stay in the land they have come to call home.

“We’ve paid thousands of dollars. Why did you let us come here and then toss us out like we were nothing?”

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