Idées | Les défis administratifs et linguistiques de la francisation

2025/08/05 Leave a comment

Interesting discussion on purity vs pragmatism:

…Heureusement, on constate aussi des améliorations en matière de francisation. Un élément auquel on ne pense pas spontanément, mais qui est important, est le choix des manuels de francisation. Auparavant, les manuels s’alignaient sur le français européen, voire parisien. On employait des mots caractéristiques du français européen sans toujours donner leur équivalent en Amérique (comme portable pour cellulaire ou football pour soccer). Aujourd’hui, les manuels utilisés au Québec sont plus adaptés au contexte québécois. C’est notamment le cas des manuels « Par ici », qui utilisent par exemple arachide plutôt que cacahuète et sac à dos plutôt que cartable. Ce n’est pas banal : les apprenants reconnaîtront ainsi les mots du quotidien.

Les manuels de français langue seconde employés dans le Canada anglais ne semblent pas tous avoir mené la même réflexion sur la variation de la langue. Le fait que la langue française varie selon l’endroit où elle est parlée dans la francophonie se comprend assez aisément. Cependant, dans certains manuels, on sent une confusion entre, d’une part, cette variation dans l’espace et, d’autre part, la variation selon la situation de communication ou le registre. Il peut être tout à fait pertinent d’expliciter certaines expressions familières très courantes, comme c’est plate et avoir de la misère, comme le fait « Par ici », tout en précisant qu’elles appartiennent au registre familier. (C’est ainsi que mon ami turc Mehmet me demandait ce que signifiait l’expression ammanné. J’ai dû le faire répéter quelques fois pour comprendre qu’il s’agissait de à un moment donné…) L’information sur les registres est cruciale : le nouvel arrivant doit savoir qu’il peut dire salut et blonde à un ami, mais qu’il est préférable de dire bonjour et conjointe lors d’un entretien d’embauche. Mais certains manuels véhiculent une vision caricaturale du français québécois, comme si ses particularités se résumaient à des mots très familiers. Un manuel dresse une liste des « expressions idiomatiques » du Québec qui ne regroupe en fait que des usages très familiers : char, loader ses cartes de crédit, veut veut pas… Aucune information sur le fait que le français québécois possède aussi des particularismes neutres, comme traversier, présentement ou aréna.

Par ailleurs, on sent une confusion entre le rôle de la francisation et une certaine vision puriste de la langue. L’objectif est de faire du français la langue commune et de permettre aux nouveaux arrivants de s’intégrer à la société et au marché du travail. Est-il vraiment nécessaire d’enseigner dès les premiers mois de francisation que  caméra est un anglicisme critiqué à remplacer par appareil photo et qu’on doit employer scolaire plutôt qu’académique ? On peut aussi contester certains choix : pourquoi employer croustilles plutôt que chips, que le nouvel arrivant entendra indéniablement plus souvent ?

Poussé à l’extrême, le purisme peut avoir des conséquences négatives sur le français, même s’il part d’un attachement profond envers la langue. La sociolinguiste Françoise Gadet définit le purisme comme « une sacralisation de la norme, éventuellement jusque dans le respect des formes les moins rationnelles ». Or, certaines règles particulièrement illogiques et incohérentes de l’orthographe française sont extrêmement difficiles à acquérir, même pour des francophones de langue maternelle. Mettons-nous à la place du nouvel arrivant qui apprend sa deuxième, voire sa troisième langue, qui plus est à l’âge adulte.

« Madame, j’ai appris à parler français, je me débrouille bien, mais je n’arrive pas à réussir le test écrit de français pour accéder à l’université. Je déménage en Ontario. »

C’est le genre de confidences que partagent avec moi à l’occasion des étudiants en francisation. On peut se demander en quoi conserver les règles d’accord du participe passé ou du pluriel de « rose incarnat » et de « sapin vert-de-gris » aident à la promotion du français.

Mireille Elchacar L’autrice est lexicologue et professeure à l’Université TELUQ. Elle a publié Délier la langue. Pour un nouveau discours sur le français au Québec.

Source: Idées | Les défis administratifs et linguistiques de la francisation

… Fortunately, there are also improvements in francization. One element that we do not think of spontaneously, but which is important, is the choice of francization manuals. Previously, textbooks were aligned with European French, even Parisian. Characteristic words of European French were used without always giving their equivalent in America (such as mobile phone for cell phone or football for soccer). Today, the textbooks used in Quebec are more adapted to the Quebec context. This is particularly the case with the “Par ici” manuals, which use, for example, peanut instead of peanut and backpack rather than schoolbag. It is not trivial: learners will recognize the words of everyday life.

The French as a second language textbooks used in English Canada do not all seem to have conducted the same reflection on the variation of the language. The fact that the French language varies according to where it is spoken in the Francophonie is quite easy to understand. However, in some manuals, there is a confusion between, on the one hand, this variation in space and, on the other hand, the variation according to the communication situation or the register. It can be quite relevant to explain certain very common colloquial expressions, such as it’s flat and have misery, such as “Here”, while specifying that they belong to the colloquial register. (This is how my Turkish friend Mehmet asked me what the expression ammanné meant. I had to repeat it a few times to understand that it was at some point…) The information on the registers is crucial: the newcomer must know that he can say hello and blonde to a friend, but that it is better to say hello and wife during a job interview. But some manuals convey a caricatured vision of Quebec French, as if its peculiarities were summarized in very familiar words. A manual draws up a list of Quebec’s “idiomatic expressions” that in fact only includes very familiar uses: tank, load your credit cards, wants doesn’t want… No information on the fact that Quebec French also has neutral particularisms, such as ferry, currently or arena.

Moreover, there is a confusion between the role of francization and a certain puristic vision of the language. The objective is to make French the common language and to allow newcomers to integrate into society and the labor market. Is it really necessary to teach from the first months of francization that camera is a criticized anglicism to be replaced by camera and that we must use school rather than academic? We can also challenge certain choices: why use chips instead of chips, which the newcomer will undeniably hear more often?

Pushed to the extreme, purism can have negative consequences on French, even if it starts from a deep attachment to the language. Sociolinguist Françoise Gadet defines purism as “a sacralization of the norm, possibly even in respect of the least rational forms”. However, some particularly illogical and incoherent rules of French spelling are extremely difficult to acquire, even for French speakers whose mother tongue. Let’s put ourselves in the place of the newcomer who learns his second, or even his third language, moreover in adulthood.

“Madam, I learned to speak French, I’m doing well, but I can’t pass the written French test to get to university. I’m moving to Ontario. ”

This is the kind of confidences that Frenchization students share with me. One may wonder how preserving the rules of agreement of the past participle or plural of “pink incarnat” and “fir green-of-gris” help to promote French.

Mireille Elchacar The author is a lexicologist and professor at TELUQ University. She published Délier la langue. For a new discourse on French in Quebec.

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Rempel Garner: Without national identity, integration is impossible and collapse is inevitable.

2025/08/02 Leave a comment

Always worth reading the Conservative take on immigration policy even when overly partisan and exaggerated in places. Some of her critiques have some merit but are weakened by being overstated. And to ignore broader trends on belonging and pinning everything on the Trudeau government is shallow at best:

…For example, on immigration, the Trudeau Liberals narrowed the age range for mandatory language and knowledge requirements in citizenship applications from 14-64 to 18-54, thus diminishing shared language’s role in Canadian identity for newcomers. They eliminated the in-person citizenship oath requirement. They sought to erase references to practices like female genital mutilation as abhorrent in the citizenship study guide, and in so doing, arguably normalized their importation into Canada. They turned a blind eye to judicial rulings allowing immigration status to factor into sentencing violent criminals, valuing the process of entry into the country over the responsibility associated with citizenship. They allowed Canada’s compassionate asylum system to be abused into a mockery.

The Trudeau Liberals also normalized the practice of the importation of conflicts from newcomer’s countries of origin, rather than primarily encouraging the shedding of these quarrels in favour of a pluralistic, unified Canadian identity rooted in Western democratic values. This phenomenon is best exemplified via the Trudeau government’s tolerance of diasporic lobby groups’ influence in elections and Canadian institutions, while simultaneously turning a blind eye to groups who sought to plant international conflicts and even terrorist principles in Canadian soil. And despite clear evidence of rising foreign interference in elections, the Liberals have yet to implement a foreign agent registry.

The Trudeau Liberals also prioritized cultural and ethnic differences over a shared ethos of equality in hiring and storytelling. For example, they embedded divisive, quasi-racist hiring policies into federal funding for educational institutions. They allowed Canada’s publicly funded national broadcaster to consider abandoning objectivity for racialized narratives, and now allocate news funding based on whether or not outlets sufficiently highlight ethnic, religious, and other group differences.

And rather than enlisting newcomers to help strengthen a cohesive Canadian national identity, such as by constructively addressing the nation’s historic injustices while simultaneously celebrating its positive achievements, the Trudeau Liberals actively erased symbols of shared historic Canadian identity from public view. They redesigned the Canadian passport to replace images of Canadian national heroes like Terry Fox with inert objects like a wheelbarrow. They supported activities that established the Canadian flag as a symbol of shame as opposed to a representation of patriotism. They worked to erase Canada’s founders from places of prominence.

Thus, Canada’s political left has profoundly succeeded in transforming Canada into a post-national no-nation, free from the trappings of a cohesive national identity.

For those who might argue that this is a good thing, they are very wrong. 

What Justin Trudeau overlooked in his Liberal government’s zealous pursuit of post-nationalism is that his father’s multicultural vision could only thrive under robust Western democratic institutions. Without a government prioritizing above all else, especially over partisan ideology, the safeguarding of principles like freedom of speech, secularism, and equality of opportunity, multiculturalism will inevitably destroy a peaceful, democratic pluralism.

The proof is in the pudding. Today in Canada, after decades of post-national, national identity-destroying policies, less than half of Canadian youth say they would fight for the country. This marks a startling shift from generations ago, when Canadians fought for what seemed to be immutable freedoms in the Great Wars. Diasporic conflicts now erupt on Canadian streets, hate crimes against ethnic and religious groups have surged, and the once-strong Canadian consensus on immigration is solidly broken.

If Canadians want to reverse the pluralism-destroying course post-nationalism has set us on, everyone, regardless of political stripe, must acknowledge that post-nationalism has eroded Canada’s national identity to point of non-existence. That state of affairs is likely the biggest threat to Canada’s sovereignty today.

History proves this conclusion correct. For a civilization to survive the test of history it needs some sort of cohesive shared identity. Without it, collapse occurs. There’s even examples to be found within Canada’s own evolution in the 20th century. In the early 1900s a Canadian national identity had taken root in spite of high levels of immigration. Forged in the crucibles of battlefields like Vimy Ridge, peoples of many backgrounds fought together as Canadians, united by shared values of democracy, rule of law, bilingualism, and loyalty to the Crown. To be Canadian then was to embrace English or French as a primary language, respect parliamentary institutions, and demonstrate civic duty through collective efforts in war and nation-building. 

Fast forward to today. Our domestic efforts fail to build critical national infrastructure and have allowed our military to atrophy to the point of near non-functionality. Our foreign policy rewards the tactics of terrorist organizations and abandons Western allies in times of crisis. Logic dictates that if the Liberal government continues eroding the Western democratic values that once, but arguably no longer, underpin Canada’s rapidly disappearing pluralistic national identity (freedom of speech, freedom of worship, and equality in the rule of law’s application), then collapse is what should be expected of Canada’s once-vaunted pluralism.

Those looking for remedy from new Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney will likely be sorely disappointed. Long an adherent to the World Economic Forum’s globalist brand of post-nationalism, the best definition of Canada’s national identity he has mustered is that we’re not the United States. His new “Minister of National Identity” Stephen Guilbeault managed an arguably worse response, offering pithiness like “I won’t stand here and pretend that I can tell you what Canadian identity is or should be,” while arguing there is “no one way to be Canadian.” That neither could define Canadian identity as rooted in shared respect for things like the rule of Western-based law, freedom of speech, freedom to worship, and equality of opportunity is telling.

The reality for Mr. Carney is that his government must reverse the many changes Mr. Trudeau made under his aggressive post-national doctrine to order to rebuild Canada’s national identity, prevent pluralism’s collapse, and retain our sovereignty.

If he fails, the effect will be the same as if he were to tip over Cardiff’s speakers in the National Gallery: a shameful and purposeful squandering of an intricate, delicate masterpiece.

Source: Without national identity, integration is impossible and collapse is inevitable.

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ICYMI: Temporary foreign workers may get more flexibility to move jobs as Ottawa eyes changes to program

2025/08/02 Leave a comment

Not getting much support from worker organizations but policy is always a balance between different stakeholders:

The federal government is exploring changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program that would give workers more freedom to move jobs within their industry, rather than have their permits tied to a single employer.

Internal documents from Employment and Social Development Canada – the ministry in charge of the program – detail proposals to introduce a new sector-specific permit for workers in the agricultural and fish processing industries. 

The work permit, issued for two years, would allow workers to move between employers in the same sector as long as they have a new job offer from an employer. Currently, if workers lose their jobs, they also lose their permits.

The ESDC documents consist of six proposals to change aspects of the TFW program, including guidelines related to housing, wages, access to health care and transportation for workers. They were based on feedback from employer associations and labour groups and written over the past year.

The documents were provided to The Globe and Mail from Migrant Rights Network, a national advocacy organization that has long campaigned to abolish the closed work permit system and grant temporary foreign workers a direct path to permanent residency. The organization obtained the documents as part of the government’s consultation process.

On Wednesday, the group released a report criticizing the new federal proposals, characterizing the sector-specific work permits as a cosmetic change that would maintain employer control while creating an illusion of freedom and mobility for workers. The report says this is because employers would still have the ability to blacklist workers who leave their jobs. …

In November, 2024, a parliamentary committee on citizenship and immigration recommended that Ottawa get rid of the closed-work-permit system entirely, and introduce regional or sector-specific work permits that would define sectors broadly, and provide workers with access to a wide range of employers. 

The proposed changes from ESDC appear to build on recommendations from the parliamentary committee and a 2023 report from the United Nations, which branded the TFW program as a “breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.”

Beyond the stream-specific work permit, ESDC is proposing a redesigned LMIA process, in which employers obtain a Temporary Foreign Worker Employer Authorization (TFWEA) that they apply for every two years. A TFWEA, according to ESDC documents, will allow an employer to be approved to hire numerous foreign workers every two years, instead of the current system of applying for an LMIA approval each time employers need to fill a position with a foreign worker. “The TFWEA would be refillable, meaning that employers could re-fill a position that a TFW left with a qualified TFW who has a valid stream-specific work permit,” the document states. 

The government is touting the changes as measures that will benefit both workers and employers. The latter group, according to ESDC, would have more flexibility to replace workers. Meanwhile, those who find themselves out of work would be able to start a job more quickly with a new employer. …

Source: Temporary foreign workers may get more flexibility to move jobs as Ottawa eyes changes to program

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Canadian immigration refusal letters will now come with officers’ notes

2025/08/01 Leave a comment

Overdue and hopefully will reduce need for time consuming ATIP requests. But to be seen in terms of how informative these notes will be and the degree they satisfy applicants (IRCC also has the largest number of court proceedings):

The Immigration Department has started to include officers’ notes in refusal letters to failed immigration applicants, who have long complained of insufficient information about the reasons they’re refused.

The change is a response to the soaring immigration applications and refusals, which have led to a significant growth in the number of access-to-information requests over the years, clogging up the Access to Information and Privacy system, as it was the only way applicants and counsel could obtain their case notes. 

“As part of our ongoing efforts to improve our services, on July 29, 2025, we started proactively providing officer decision notes along with refusal letters for certain applications,” the department says on its website.

“These notes come from the officer who made the final decision on the application. This change makes it easier for clients to get their personal information on their application. This supports our commitment to delivering our services with greater transparency.”

The change will cover applications for extensions for temporary resident visas (excluding electronic travel authorizations and temporary resident permits), visitor records, study permits and work permits.

The department said that over time, more application types will be added to the list. However, as of now, those who applied using the new version of the department’s online portal won’t benefit from the move. 

“We may decide to exclude certain portions of the notes on a case-by-case basis due to security, privacy or other concerns,” said the department notice.

According to an Information Commissioner of Canada report to the Parliament last year, 78 per cent of federal access-to-information requests were directed to the Immigration Department in 2022-2023, with eight per cent going to the Canada Border Services Agency. The rest were for all other federal government institutions.  

Source: Canadian immigration refusal letters will now come with officers’ notes

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Les demandes d’asile au poste frontalier de Lacolle en hausse depuis l’année dernière

2025/08/01 Leave a comment

Of note:

Le point d’entrée de Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, situé tout près du chemin Roxham et de la frontière entre le Québec et les États-Unis, accueille près de 50 % de demandeurs d’asile de plus depuis le début de l’année, comparativement à la même période en 2024, selon les chiffres de l’Agence des services frontaliers du Canada (ASFC). Pour faire face à cette hausse, l’agence fédérale a loué des « locaux supplémentaires » afin de pouvoir « aider au traitement des demandeurs d’asile ».

« En cas d’afflux de demandeurs d’asile nécessitant des locaux supplémentaires, l’ASFC met en place des plans d’urgence en matière d’infrastructure », précise l’agence fédérale dans une déclaration écrite transmise au Devoir.

Selon les chiffres fournis par l’ASFC, 10 724 demandes d’asile ont été reçues au point d’entrée de Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle entre le 1er janvier et le 27 juillet 2025. Durant la même période en 2024, 5077 demandes d’asile avaient été reçues.

Le mois de juillet 2025 (prenant fin le 27 juillet dans le cadre de la récolte de données) fut le plus occupé, avec 3089 demandes. Pendant la même période en 2024, 613 demandes d’asile avaient été enregistrées. Pour 2025, juillet est suivi du mois d’avril, avec 2733 demandes, contre 670 en 2024.

Les mois de janvier (560) et février (755) 2025 sont les deux seuls mois ayant vu moins de demandes qu’en 2024 (respectivement 818 et 859)…

Source: Les demandes d’asile au poste frontalier de Lacolle en hausse depuis l’année dernière

The Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle entry point, located very close to Roxham Road and the border between Quebec and the United States, has received nearly 50% more asylum seekers since the beginning of the year, compared to the same period in 2024, according to figures from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). To cope with this increase, the federal agency rented “additional premises” in order to be able to “help in the treatment of asylum seekers”.

“In the event of an influx of asylum seekers requiring additional premises, the CBSA is putting in place emergency infrastructure plans,” says the federal agency in a written statement sent to Le Devoir.

According to figures provided by the CBSA, 10,724 asylum applications were received at the Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle entry point between January 1 and July 27, 2025. During the same period in 2024, 5,077 asylum applications were received.

The month of July 2025 (ending on July 27 as part of the data collection) was the busiest, with 3089 requests. During the same period in 2024, 613 asylum applications were registered. For 2025, July is followed by April, with 2733 applications, compared to 670 in 2024.

The months of January (560) and February (755) 2025 are the only two months with fewer requests than in 2024 (818 and 859 respectively)…

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Le Devoir editorial: Gouverner, le cœur en moins [immigratiion]

2025/07/31 Leave a comment

Merited strong critique:

…Il existe en gouvernance une règle qui n’a rien de sorcier et qui tombe sous le couvert du gros bon sens : avant de prendre une décision susceptible de toucher de manière directe la sécurité financière et la stabilité de familles déjà jugées vulnérables, il est préférable d’effectuer une solide collecte d’informations et d’obtenir une validation juridique, surtout si l’on suspecte un « flou » dans la rédaction d’un article de loi. Québec a plutôt provoqué une secousse dans le train-train de familles immigrantes avant de vérifier si sa décision était la bonne.

Voilà une manière de gouverner à rebrousse-poil, et le cœur en moins.

Les faux pas et les maladresses s’accumulent dans le champ crucial de l’immigration, qui marie la vitalité de notre économie à nos compétences comme société d’accueil. La bienveillance devrait y figurer en tête de liste, ce qui ne l’empêcherait pas de cohabiter avec des facteurs clés comme le respect de nos valeurs, la vitalité du français (notamment à Montréal) ou nos capacités à offrir des services en santé, en éducation et en soutien à la famille. Les déclarations politiques s’additionnent désormais pour faire valoir que nos systèmes craquellent notamment en raison d’un volume trop important d’entrées

Source: Gouverner, le cœur en moins

… There is a rule in governance that is not rocket science and that falls under the guise of common sense: before making a decision likely to directly affect the financial security and stability of families already considered vulnerable, it is preferable to carry out a solid collection of information and obtain legal validation, especially if we suspect a “blur” in the drafting of an article of law. Instead, Quebec caused a shock in the train of immigrant families before checking whether its decision was the right one.

This is a way to govern backwards, and the heart less.

Missteps and clumsiness accumulate in the crucial field of immigration, which combines the vitality of our economy with our skills as a host society. Benevolence should be at the top of the list, which would not prevent it from coexisting with key factors such as respect for our values, the vitality of French (especially in Montreal) or our ability to offer health, education and family support services. Political statements are now adding up to argue that our systems are cracking, in particular because of too many entries

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Almost 600 foreign nationals with criminal records due to be deported are missing, CBSA says

2025/07/30 Leave a comment

Will likely not contribute to perception of government managing immigration, along with related broader issues of removals and visa overstays:

Canadian border agents are trying to track down almost 600 foreigners with criminal records who are due to be deported but have gone missing – 431 of whom have been found guilty of serious crimes such as sexual assault.

Figures from the Canada Border Services Agency show that 1,635 foreign nationalsguilty of committing crimes in Canada are currently facing deportation, but 599 of them have failed to attend deportation proceedings and have been placed on the agency’s “wanted” list. 

Of those 599, 315 have been evading deportation for more than three years. Another 46, according to CBSA figures obtained by The Globe and Mail, have been evading the authorities for more than two years. 

Of the foreign nationals due to be deported, 401 are serving a prison sentence and must leave the country after they get out of custody. …

Source: Almost 600 foreign nationals with criminal records due to be deported are missing, CBSA says

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Key takeaways from trial over Trump administration’s ‘ideological deportation’ policy

2025/07/29 Leave a comment

Chilling:

A trial over the extraordinary measures taken by the Trump administrationto detain foreign scholars over their pro-Palestinian speech revealed previously unknown details about the extent to which immigration officials broke with precedent in their campaign against university activists.

The case, which was brought by the national American Association of University Professors (AAUP); its Harvard, Rutgers and New York University chapters; and the Middle East Studies Association (Mesa) after the arrest of several noncitizen students and scholars who had been outspoken about Palestinian rights, marked the first time the administration was asked to defend its position that it has the authority to deport noncitizens over constitutionally protected speech.

The plaintiffs argued the government’s actions amounted to an illegal “ideological deportation” policy.

“The Trump administration is imprisoning and expelling people because of their political viewpoints,” said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute, which represented the plaintiffs along with the law firm Sher Tremonte. “It would be difficult to conceive of a policy more offensive to the first amendment, or to the values the first amendment was meant to serve.”

While the four arrested scholars – including the Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk – have all been released from detention while their legal cases proceed, others have left the country to avoid arrest and one is in hiding.

The trial ended in Boston on Monday. The judge in the case, Reagan appointee William G Young, is not expected to rule on the case for at least a few weeks. Any decision he makes will almost certainly be appealed, possibly up to the US supreme court.

These are some of the revelations that came out of the trial.

  1. The Trump administration relied on lists from shadowy pro-Israel groups Among the trial’s most explosive revelations was the fact that the government relied on dossiers compiled by the rightwing Canary Mission, a secretive, pro-Israel group dedicated to doxing thousands of pro-Palestinian students, scholars and activists, as well as information by the far-right Zionist group Betar USA, which even the pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League lists as an extremist organisation. Both Canary Mission and Betar had been involved in compiling “deportation lists”, sending “thousands of names” to government officials. While that had been previously reported, the testimony of senior US immigration officials revealed for the first time the extent to which the government relied on such lists. Peter Hatch, a senior official within Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division, testified that the agency assembled a group of officials – known internally as the “Tiger Team” – dedicated to investigating student protesters. The team rapidly compiled more than 100 reports based on a list of 5,000 individuals identified on the Canary Mission website. The dossiers the agency compiled on Öztürk, Khalil and others highlighted their pro-Palestinian speech, Hatch testified, included their Canary Mission pages, as well as, in Öztürk’s case, an op-ed she wrote in a student paper. “The direction was to look at the website,” Hatch said in court. “That we should look at the individuals named in the Canary Mission website.”
  2. Immigration officials admitted to the unprecedented nature of the arrests Four of the officers involved in Öztürk and Khalil’s arrests, as well as in the arrests of Columbia graduate Mohsen Mahdawi and Georgetown postdoctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri, said that orders to prioritize the scholars had come from high up within the Trump administration.  They also admitted they had never taken part in such arrests before.  A New England Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agent involved in Mahdawi’s arrest, William Crogan, said that he had never seen a noncitizen removed from the US based on similar factual allegations and that his superiors had ordered him to prioritize the case. Patrick Cunningham, an Ice agent in Boston, said the same of Öztürk’s case, while Darren McCormack, an agent in New York, said that the request to arrest Khalil was unusual and that he was told the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the White House were specifically interested in Khalil’s case.  Andre Watson, a senior HSI official, testified that early in the Trump administration, Ice and the state department coordinated on a new process to implement the president’s executive orders targeting student protesters. 
  3. The government tried to block the release of documentsDuring the trial, the government’s attorneys sought to block the release of documents detailing its processes and reasons for revoking student visas and issuing determinations of removability for green card holders such as Khalil and Mahdawi.  The records for only five of the targeted students were released in the end; many others were not. The government also succeeded in blocking the release of a state department report detailing the administration’s policies on the matter. The government has claimed the authority to deport noncitizens who have committed no crimes but whose presence it deems poses a threat to US foreign policy and national security, and it has said that the students’ presence in the US interfered with its stated efforts to combat antisemitism. The US Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment but in court filings it called claims of an ideological deportation policy the product of plaintiffs’ “imagination”. But John Armstrong, the most senior official at the state department’s bureau of consular affairs, admitted under questioning that statements critical of Israel or US foreign policy could qualify noncitizens for deportation. He also admitted that officials who were instructed to compile allegations about the individuals targeted received no guidance about what constitutes antisemitism even as they sometimes invoked “antisemitic conduct” in their memos. The administration’s lawyers have also equivocated on whether noncitizens have the same constitutional rights as US citizens, at one point saying they do, but later adding that there are “nuances” related to national security, immigration and foreign policy matters. 
  4. A huge chilling effect Both citizen and noncitizen scholars testified about the climate of fear created by the arrests. Megan Hyska, a Canadian philosophy professor at Northwestern University in Chicago, said in court that she decided not to publish an op-ed she had written about organising resistance to the Trump administration’s policies out of fear of being targeted for arrest. Nadje Al-Ali, a German anthropologist and former director of the Center for Middle East Studies at Brown University, said she canceled plans to travel abroad and stopped pursuing research related to Palestine because of similar concerns. Veena Dubal, the AAUP’s general counsel, testified that the government’s fearmongering campaign has fundamentally altered the group’s activities. She said that members who had previously been very active within the group stopped attending meetings.Aslı Bâli, Mesa’s president, warned in a statement to the Guardian that the impact of the government’s policies risked only growing worse. “The government is abducting individuals, and thereby separating families and squandering public resources, purely on the basis of protected political speech that they disagree with,” she said. “They need to be held to account, and our rights need to be defended, because otherwise we will find these protections gone – and the chilling effect will be pervasive.”

Source: Key takeaways from trial over Trump administration’s ‘ideological deportation’ policy

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

ICYMI: ICE’s Shocking Midday Kidnappings Remind Me of Something I’ve Seen Before

2025/07/29 Leave a comment

Frightening times:

Since Donald Trump’s second inauguration in January, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has kicked into high gear, employing a set of extreme methods in an attempt to reach Stephen Miller’s unrealistic deportation quotas. Many Americans have watched in horror as masked ICE agents, sometimes accompanied by other federal agents and even local police, have appeared on their television screens, looking for and detaining immigrants in their homes, in their workplaces, and on the street. Sometimes, small gangs of law enforcement appear in military gear and masks, resembling military police. Sometimes, a mix of federal agents and local police deploy in large groups to conduct workplace raids, in a strange hodgepodge of uniforms. In other instances, officers have confronted immigrants as they leave court or show up to renew their work permits, then take them away.

But the law enforcement strategy that may have garnered the most shock among members of the public is the jump-out squad: small tactical teams of armed officers not in uniform who jump out of unmarked cars and grab immigrants off the street with no warning, or pull immigrants over and surround their cars, suddenly, before taking them away. Described by advocates for detainees as “brazen, midday kidnappings,” jump-out squads use a combination of surprise, terror, and overwhelming force. When they stop individuals with no reasonable suspicion, they act in violation of federal law, and a court in California has enjoined this practice.

But if this particular technique—jumping out on potential suspects, searching them, and taking them away—seems entirely foreign, it should not. Nor should the overt racial profiling that always accompanies these sorts of methods. Many urban police departments—including those in Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Memphis, Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Louisville, and Washington—have used jump-out tactics as a means of crime prevention. And those are just the ones we know about.

Police jump-out squads drive around in unmarked cars, looking for people who they believe are breaking the law. Although they rarely mask, they are still difficult to identify because they don’t wear uniforms or show their badges. Like the ICE squads, they deploy overwhelming force and the element of surprise to intercept criminal activity and find people carrying illegal guns. Jump-out squads have become more taboo in the past several years because the confrontations they instigate have proved so dangerous for the people they stop: These tactical teams can spiral out of control, leading to deadly consequences. They have been responsible for countless acts of excessive force, some of which have resulted in tragedy. The SCORPION squadthat killed Tyre Nichols in Memphis was a jump-out squad, as was the task force that killed 12-year-old TJ Siderio in Philadelphia.

These squads often cultivate a kind of vigilante ethos among their officers. Their members frequently work outside the typical chain of police command, reporting directly to the brass. Often, the units intentionally recruit aggressive officers and fail to properly train them on the Fourth Amendment. A group of police officers in L.A., calling themselves the Jump Out Boys, described their work this way: “Jump out boys are alpha dogs, who think and act like the wolf. … They understand when the line needs to be crossed and crossed back. They need to work hard, they need to get guns, they need to take people to jail, and sometimes they need to do things they don’t want to do.”

Over the past 30 years, jump-out squads were used first as a tool to break up the drug trade (in Seasons 1 and 3 of The Wire, Baltimore police deploy a ragtag such squad), then, more recently, during a spike in violence caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, when urban police departments attempted to bring down the rate of gun violence by seizing illegal firearms. In the summer of 2020, 18 years after the tragic death of Amadou Diallo, New York City finally disbanded its infamous anti-crime unit, which frequently used aggressive jump-out tactics, but Mayor Eric Adams brought back a “modified plainclothes anti-gun unit” just a few weeks after taking office in 2022….

Source: ICE’s Shocking Midday Kidnappings Remind Me of Something I’ve Seen Before

Filed under Immigration Tagged with ,

Doug Ford and other premiers want provincial work permits for refugee claimants. It may not solve anything

2025/07/28 Leave a comment

Nothing burger given quick processing of 45 days?

With refugee claimants now getting work permits fairly quickly and housing being less of a pain point, why do Canada’s premiers want to seize power from Ottawa to issue work permits?

This week, the provincial leaders emerged from the premiers’ meeting united in seeking the powers under the Constitution to issue work authorization to asylum seekers, which is currently under the federal government’s jurisdiction.

The reason behind the move, Premier Doug Ford said Wednesday, is that a lot of asylum seekers living in hotels would like to work and be self-sufficient, but can’t because it’s taking too long for Ottawa to process their work permits.

While any initiative that would help claimants to get on their feet and start working as quickly as possible is positive, Toronto refugee lawyer Adam Sadinsky isn’t sure if that push is based on “outdated information.” (The Immigration Department’s website shows work permit application processing for non-refugees currently takes 181 days.)

“It was an issue a couple of years ago,” said Sadinsky, whose clients in Canada generally now receive their work permits in about six weeks. “In my practice, I haven’t seen that it is really a significant issue anymore.”

Section 95 of the Constitution Act outlines the concurrent jurisdiction of the Canadian Parliament and provincial legislatures including immigration, education and health care. It states that both levels of government can make laws in these areas, but in a conflict, federal laws prevail. 

In fact, the two levels of governments have already shared jurisdiction in some areas of immigration. The provincial nominee immigration programs, for example, allow provinces to select prospective permanent residents for Ottawa’s stamp of approval.

Currently, the only provincial-based work permits are those related to the provincial nominee program, where the province can approve the work authorization of a selected candidate, who will ultimately get the permit from the federal government.

“The provinces and the feds have worked together,” said Toronto immigration lawyer Rick Lamanna on behalf of the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association. 

But could it be just a bluff from the premiers?

“We’ll know more if or when you start to see things coming out, whether it’s from Ontario or Alberta or other provinces, putting more meat on those bones,” Lamanna said. 

“When you start to see logistical plans, if they start opening up stakeholder consultations, if they make announcements like expansion of Service Ontario to facilitate the issuance of these permits, I think that’s when we’ll know.” 

In a statement to the Star, the Immigration Department said claimants must submit a completed application, including a medical exam, and are determined to be eligible to seek protection before they are issued a work permit. On average, it now takes 45 days to process.

Officials have also found more sustainable and cost-effective solutions such as the new refugee reception centre in Peel to house and support asylum seekers….

Source: Doug Ford and other premiers want provincial work permits for refugee claimants. It may not solve anything

Filed under Immigration, Refugees Tagged with , , ,

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