Immigration minister defends sweeping new powers in border bill

2025/06/07 Leave a comment

Early tests for Minister Diab:

Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab is defending controversial new measures in the Strong Borders Act, such as giving her office the power to cancel immigration documents en masse and placing time limits for asylum seekers to make their applications.

“There’s a lot of applications in the system. We need to act fairly, and treat people appropriately who really do need to claim asylum and who really do need to be protected to stay in Canada,” Diab told CBC News.

“We need to be more efficient in doing that. At the same time, Canadians demand that we have a system that works for everyone.”

Introduced in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Bill C-2, the Strong Borders Act, is meant to protect Canadian sovereignty, strengthen the border and keep Canadians safe, according to the federal government.

The bill would make dozens of amendments to existing laws. Its proposed changes to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act would force asylum seekers entering the country, including students and temporary residents, to make claims within a year.

The new law would also require irregular border crossers, people who enter Canada between official ports of entry, to make an asylum claim within 14 days of arriving in Canada.

And it would speed up voluntary departures by making removal orders effective the same day an asylum claim is withdrawn.

Groups such as the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers are raising concerns about these measures. 

“There are a few categories of people who may end up making a claim after they’ve been in Canada for more than one year for fully legitimate reasons,” said Adam Sadinsky, the group’s advocacy co-chair. 

He cited examples such as changes in government in someone’s country of origin, the breakout of conflict or their human rights advocacy in Canada placing a target on them. 

“They may now be in danger returning back home in a way that they weren’t when they first arrived,” he said. 

Federal government data shows some 39,445 asylum claimants processed by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency between January and April.

Sadinsky said if the government’s motivations are about clearing backlogs, it may be creating another problem. 

Asylum seekers who find their application rejected by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada can file appeals to the Refugee Appeal Division. However, shutting them out of the asylum route after a year could make them turn to the Federal Court of Canada for recourse instead, a body that has been public about its own courtrooms facing severe delays with immigration cases.

“It’s a lot more work for the court,” Sadinsky said, “when people start getting removal dates from Canada and they have to ask the court for motions for stays of removal from Canada.” 

Sadinsky suggested the government could have reduced backlogs by issuing blanket approvals for would-be asylum seekers from countries where Canada recognizes there is an imminent danger to sending them back, such as Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree said Bill C-2, the Strong Borders Act, will ‘keep our borders secure, combat transnational organized crime, stop the flow of illegal fentanyl and crack down on money laundering,’ as well as ‘enhance the integrity and fairness of our immigration system.’ 

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Justice Minister Sean Fraser said the government needed to act, though he recognized courts are facing efficiency problems.

“We need to be able to do two things at once,” he said about changing the asylum system and reducing court backlogs.

Reached for comment, the office of the chief justice of the Federal Court said in a statement it would “simply hope that any potential impact on the court’s workload would be taken into account,” citing a previous amendment to immigration law under Stephen Harper’s Conservative government in 2010 that included four new court positions.

Mass cancellation powers

The Migrant Rights Network, an advocacy group, said it is alarmed about the government giving itself the ability to cancel previously issued immigration documents in large groups. 

“What this is, is setting up of a mass deportation machine,” said its spokesperson Syed Hussan. “Just go out and say we’re walking away from the Geneva Convention.” 

Diab said any mass cancellation decisions would be taken by the whole cabinet, not just her office, and they would not be done lightly.

“These are in exceptional circumstances, when you’re talking about mass cancellation or suspension,” she said. 

“For example, when COVID happened, we literally had applications coming in, and the system had no authority to suspend or cancel those applications … we could have health risks again. We could have security risks.” 

Bill C-2 is now moving through Parliament. The legislation would normally be studied by parliamentary committee next, though neither Diab nor Gary Anandasangaree, the public safety minister, could say which committee would pick it up.

Committees have not been named yet for this sitting and it is unclear if they will before Parliament wraps up for the summer at the end of June.

The Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers said it intends to write a letter outlining its concerns to the federal government, and would hope to present at committee when the moment arrives.

Source: Immigration minister defends sweeping new powers in border bill

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‘A cat-and-mouse game of epic proportions’: What Trump’s mass deportations and immigration enforcement mean to Canada

2025/01/23 Leave a comment

Will see extent to which this affects asylum claimants through monthly statistics…

In 2023, during the Biden administration, Canada and the U.S. updated the Safe Third Country Agreement to essentially ban anyone crossing anywhere along the land border from making asylum claims in the other country. The initial ban had applied only at the official ports of entry and prompted irregular migrants to sneak through unguarded entry points such as Roxham Road in Quebec.

Despite the expanded asylum ban and Ottawa’s new border surveillance and enforcement effort to appease Trump — who has threatened crippling tariffs on Canadian goods — desperate migrants won’t be deterred because they are not going to return to the Global South, said immigration lawyer Chantal Desloges.

The removal of legal pathways for migrants to seek protection in the U.S. — suspending the refugee resettlement program and shutting down the app for migrants to make an appointment to legally enter the U.S. for asylum — won’t help, she noted.

“This is going to feed human smugglers and it’s going to make people take risks,” said Desloges. “More people are going to die when attempting these crossings.”

While it’s yet to be seen whether the White House can secure the funding to build 100,000 additional detention beds and how it will boost enforcement, refugee lawyer Adam Sadinsky said Trump’s rhetoric about the planned raids in major metropolitan areas and holding migrants in jail for the maximum time is enough to instil fear among migrants in the U.S.

“All of this language is used to make America look as inhospitable to refugees as possible,” said Sadinsky, a spokesperson for the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers.

“Our government is maybe falling into the same sort of rhetoric that refugees are a burden and a problem and something we need to protect against rather than a population that we need to protect.”

There’s a provision in the revised Safe Third Country Agreement that allows irregular migrants to seek asylum in Canada or the U.S. if they managed to cross an unguarded land border and remain undetected for 14 days — a clause that Ottawa is said to want to remove from the deal, to tighten asylum eligibility and reduce refugee backlogs.

However, critics said it’s not a real solution because it would simply move the backlog from the refugee board to the Immigration Department, which would be required to assess if potential deportees are safe to be sent back to their country of origin or to the U.S. However, Ottawa announced just this week it will cut 3,300 immigration staff.

“We are going to see a cat-and-mouse game of epic proportions between asylum seekers trying to sneak in and border agents trying to keep them out,” said refugee lawyer Max Berger. “If scrapped, it will not deter asylum seekers from sneaking to avoid deportation from the U.S. … but just drive them further underground.”

On Tuesday, Public Safety Minister David McGuinty said that so far, Canada hasn’t seen any increase in the number of irregular migrants, but officials are monitoring it closely. He also cautioned that anyone considering crossing Canada’s border illegally would be putting themselves at risk.

“One of the messages we’re imparting to folks who are in the United States is it’s illegal to cross between border crossings,” he said. “It’s also unsafe.”

Source: ‘A cat-and-mouse game of epic proportions’: What Trump’s mass deportations and immigration enforcement mean to Canada

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Sadinsky and Bondy | Donald Trump’s plans will mean chaos at the Canadian border. We aren’t even close to being ready

2024/11/25 Leave a comment

The view from immigration lawyers and likely advocates. Not too early to plan but may be too early to assume it will be that chaotic. Suspect exemptions may be a non-starter in the context of a Trump administration. And once the door is opened for one group or set of circumstances, others would then cite this to advocate for their particular group or circumstances:

…But the suddenly U.S. reality requires immediate reforms to our system. A growing backlog of refugee claims means our system needs more capacity. This can be achieved through efficiencies, such as streaming simpler claims to paper review — that is, by considering documentary evidence, without a hearing in order to issue a positive decision in the case of simple claims — and allowing eligible refugee claimants to apply in other programs.

Canada should also develop a more accessible process for individuals leaving the U.S. to seek personalized exemptions to the restrictions of the Safe Third Country Agreement. Notably, when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on the constitutionality of the agreement, it upheld it due to “safety valves”, where officers can admit people to Canada in exceptional situations if turning them back to the U.S. would violate their Charter rights. In practice, these safety valves barely exist and do not function. We need a clear, robust process for individuals to seek exemptions and proper training for officers.

Targeted exemptions to the STCA would allow some of the most vulnerable individuals to present themselves at official ports of entry to initiate refugee claims. Article 6 of the STCA permits either country to invoke exemptions to review claims where “it is in its public interest to do so.” In particular, women fleeing domestic violence are often unable to obtain asylum in the U.S. because of how U.S. law interprets the Refugee Convention. In Canada such claims are often successful, and are heard by a specially trained task force of the Immigration and Refugee Board.

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration recommended in a May 2023 report that exemptions also be invoked for individuals from places that Canada has a policy not to deport to. Invoking exemptions for such claimants would permit them to submit their claims at regular ports of entry, and would protect them from smugglers and otherwise dangerous crossings.

Above all, as a federal election looms in Canada, we must not learn the wrong lesson from the U.S. election: that dehumanizing others is a cheap way to secure votes. Changes to our system may be inevitable, but they must not be accompanied by rhetoric that demonizes others and turns members of our community against one another.

Aisling Bondy is President of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL). Adam B. Sadinsky is Co-Chair of CARL’s Advocacy Committee. Both are immigration and refugee lawyers in private practice in Toronto.

Source: Opinion | Donald Trump’s plans will mean chaos at the Canadian border. We aren’t even close to being ready

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Canada threw open its doors to visitors after the pandemic. Now, many don’t want to leave

2024/04/24 Leave a comment

Yet another example of an immigration policy failure, likely politically-driven by then Minister Fraser, leaving yet another mess for Minister Miller. Money quote: “They made a decision with a full understanding that there would be an impact on in-Canada asylum processing,” said Sharma. “There’s significant cost and it’s not just the refugee (determination) system. There are other downstream effects.”:

A special program Canada brought in last year to make it easier for tourists, business travellers and those with relatives in this country to visit has led to some unexpected consequences.

Newly obtained documents show that a striking percentage of people who took advantage of the expedited visitor visas that the program offered have now applied to stay here — as asylum seekers.

It’s a situation, some say, that reflects among other things the pent-up demand for asylum created during the pandemic, when the border was closed.

The Immigration Department said as of Feb. 29, 2024, about 152,400 visas were issued under the time-limited program, including 7,300 applicants for the so-called “Super Visas” for parents and grandparents, who come frequently to visit Canadian children and grandchildren.

A government internal memorandum obtained by Star under an access-to-information request said 19,400 asylum claims were made by visitors granted visas under the special program, though few were Super Visa applicants.

That means almost 13 per cent of these visa holders have already sought protection in Canada.

It’s a rate that appears to be abnormally high.

For instance, in 2019, before the pandemic, there were 5.7 million temporary resident visas issued and 58,378 people asked for asylum, but that number also included those who arrived as international students, foreign workers and irregular migrants walking through the United States land border.

The asylum seekers emerging from the program account for 14 per cent of the 137,947 new refugee claimants received by Canada in 2023.

The number is further expected to grow as many visa holders have yet to come before their admission document expires.

“A lot of these individuals would probably have been refused for visas but for the relaxation of the rules,” said Calgary-based immigration lawyer Raj Sharma.

“The program is done by December. That means that they’ve got a six-month entry. This surge or uptake will be with us for some time.”

Effective between Feb. 28 and Dec. 7, 2023, the temporary policy waived the requirements for applicants to prove they had enough financial resources for the travels and would leave Canada after their visits. But they must have submitted a visa application before Jan. 16 last year and not been previously denied. All must still pass security, criminal and medical clearances.

“With the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic now behind us, international travel is resuming and the Government is focused upon Canada’s economic recovery,” said a notice of the public policy signed by then immigration minister Sean Fraser.

“To position Canada to maximize the benefit of the movement of tourists, business persons and family visitors, the Government is committed to reducing processing times for visitor visas.”

Toronto immigration lawyer Adam Sadinsky attributed the high rate partly to the pent-up demand for asylum from people fleeing persecution during the pandemic between March 2020 and September 2021, when the border was closed. The relaxation of the rules also allowed some who would otherwise have been refused to get here, he noted.

“The reality is that during the time that people weren’t able to travel to Canada, the types of persecution that people face that lead them to flee their countries and seek protection abroad didn’t cease,” said Sadinsky, a spokesperson for the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers.

“It’s natural that among the group of people who applied for temporary residence, there was a cohort of individuals, whose plan, it seems, was to claim refugee protection in Canada because there were nearly two years in which they weren’t able to do that.”

He pointed out that the easing of the rules also took effect around the time that Ottawa and Washington expanded their bilateral border agreements in March to ban asylum seekers from crossing between the two countries, which has essentially made it impossible for irregular migrants to cross the land border for asylum.

The land border restrictions, he said, mean only the most privileged who are able to secure a visa to fly to Canada can have access to asylum.

“It has always been possible for individuals to make refugee claims after they come to Canada with a visitor visa, a student visa or a work permit,” said Sadinsky.

“The reality is that people flee their countries and they do that in ways that it is possible. Canada has international obligations to grant protection to those who are within our border.”

Sharma said the federal government had the options to either return applications and refund applicants caught in the backlog, or simply inform people about the backlog and ask them to wait if they could.

He said the special public policy was unprecedented because the visa relaxation applied system-wide regardless of country of origin, but said the measure was harmful.

“They made a decision with a full understanding that there would be an impact on in-Canada asylum processing,” said Sharma. “There’s significant cost and it’s not just the refugee (determination) system. There are other downstream effects.”

An Immigration Department spokesperson said the special public policy has been successful in clearing most of the older temporary resident visa applications in the system. According to its website, there are currently 1.14 million such applications in the queue, almost half exceeding service standards, down from 64 per cent in February 2023.

Source: Canada threw open its doors to visitors after the pandemic. Now, many don’t want to leave

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