Politic?

Illegal Migrants Bypassing Official Border Entry, Canada

"...Once legal avenues have been exhausted, individuals are expected to respect our laws and leave Canada, or as per our commitments, be removed."
"We are reinvesting in the agency [Canada Border Services Agency] to ensure that processing continues to happen in a manner that is fair, fast and final."
Marie-Emmanuelle Cadieux, spokesperson, Border Security Minister Bill Blair

Aug. 11, 2017: A group of asylum seekers wait to be processed after being escorted from their tent encampment to the Canada Border Services facility in Lacolle, Que.

Christinne Muschi/Reuters

Asylum seekers who enter Canada crossing the border between it and the United States deliberately bypassing official border crossings, and who are unsuccessful in their refugee applications -- which take up to two years to process, and additional lengthy periods of time before all avenues of appeal are exhausted -- are being gradually and slowly removed by the Canada Border Services Agency. Slowly and gradually because of an immense backlog of cases that the agency is hard put to deal with.

A target was set last fall for ten thousand removals for the fiscal year of 2018-19, an increase over the previous years when the average removal rate went from 7,900 to 8,600. Since 2017, 45,000 illegal entries from the U.S. into Canada have taken place. Creating a total backlog of 75,000. The flood of border crossers has diminished since their height two years earlier and the CBSA is prioritizing the removal of those whose claims have been denied.

Those considered to represent threats to national security or who are involved in organized crime, crimes against humanity or other kinds of criminal activity are given removal priority. Even so, a small minority of the tens of thousands of illegal asylum seekers entering Canada in the last two years have been deported with merely 723 illegals with failed refugee claims deported between April 1, 2017 and June 21, 2019.

The number of asylum-seekers crossing into Canada at unofficial points of entry is on the decline: the RCMP intercepted 888 people during the month of January 2019, and 808 in February 2019, compared to 1,517 and 1,565, respectively, the previous year. (Charles Krupa/The Associated Press)

Some 6,609 people have been detained in holding centres in 2017-18, an increase from the year before. There are centers in Toronto, Laval and Vancouver; in other regions of the country people who have been detained as posing security risks may be held in provincial jails. In the holding centres separate accommodation is provided for men, women and families who have access to outdoor recreational areas, are provided daily meals, access to games, televisions and telephones, medical services and visitation areas.

In theory, parents decide for the most part whether or not their children remain with them in detention. "This is really a false choice", points out Hanna Gros, immigration and refugee lawyer. "When you're new to a country, you don't necessarily know anybody here, you don't have family friends, contacts or community support. You have people here who are left with really horrifying choices to make in these situations." Needless to say, these are the same people who chose to enter Canada illegally....

For deportation to another country to take place, both countries involved must agree to an individual leaving one state to arrive at another. "Deportation is a two-way agreement between states, and not so much contingent on the individual. There has to be an admission or an entrance of some sort into another state", points out Stephanie Silverman, with migrant advocacy group Thinking Forward Network. If the detainee's identity cannot be verified by the state nor the person leaving, proof must be achieved from within a detention centre, which is extremely difficult.

Certain states will not issue travel documents for nationals who are convicted of crimes in another country, lengthening the detention process, complicating the process for immigrants with a criminal record.