Canada's Surging Illegal Migrant Population

"I'm not going to sugar-coat it, we believe there's 500,000 illegal immigrants currently spread across Canada and these individuals are benefiting from taxpayer-funded services."

"The federal government is choosing to disregard this number and that's a real problem."

"These illegal migrants must be taken into account, as every province is feeling the pressure of Ottawa's mismanagement of the immigration system."

Alberta Immigration Minister Joseph Schow 

Illegal migrants claiming refugee status   True North

 

Illegal immigration in Canada is not taken seriously by the federal government and Alberta's Immigration Minister urges the imperative that Ottawa stop ignoring the problem that has wide repercussions across the country in drawing social support resources from the Canadian taxpaying public to those present in Canada illegally in numbers large enough to have a truly disturbing effect in finite services. From medical care to social housing and the growing  use of food banks, to growing unemployment among young Canadians, the presence of too many new immigrants, refugees and illegal migrants is producing a deleterious economic and human resources impact.

 

Infrastructure and public services, points out MPP Schow, are under great strain across the country. Federal officials, he urges, must account for the estimated number of undocumented migrants in Canada in view of the need to set immigration targets for the coming year. Recently, federal officials themselves acknowledged a need to mitigate problems associated with too many people arriving in too short time-spans, drawing on the country's social systems and creating shortages in housing while over-burdening an already-strained medical/health system. Millions of new arrivals were welcomed in the past several years. 

 

Ottawa projects a 19 percent reduction in temporary arrivals, and eight percent drop in permanent resident admissions in the next three years, through a bolstered immigration level plan. The government has moved to cap non-permanent resident numbers in Canada below five percent of the population. A skeptical Schow feels such efforts are likely to fall short of a sufficient adjustment to make a difference. "If they're leaving out this huge chunk of data (the issue of illegal immigration) how can they set real targets?"

A screengrab from an RCMP video shows people crossing the Manitoba border into Canada. Photograph: Jason Franson/AP

 

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada disclosed in a briefing note a year ago that the number of undocumented migrants could be as high as 500,000, while at the same time admitting that the exact number is unknown. About 114,373 irregular border crossers petitioned to remain in Canada, according o the federal government, between February 2017 and June of 2025. Lack of reliably hard figures on illegal immigration all the more reason for Ottawa to diminish its intake of migrants.

 

58 percent of Canadians, according to a recent poll, feel that mass deportations have become a necessity to curb the number of people now living illegally in Canada. The province of Alberta has led the country in inter-provincial migration and overall population growth in recent years, Immigration Minister Schow pointed out, with the province's population having swelled by some 200,000 last year and continuing on through 2025. A situation that has gone well beyond hampering individuals in Alberta achieving upward mobility. 

 

"The fact that [the federal government is unaware of the precise number of undocumented migrants] they don't have an exact, or close to exact, number just shows again how badly they've lost control of the system." 

"People around the world rightly see us as a beacon of hope and opportunity ... and for that exact reason, we have to be mindful that we're growing our population in a way that's strategic." 

Alberta Minister of Immigration and Jobs, Economy and Trade   

 

The Longest Undefended Border in the World

"Canada works closely with both the United States and Mexico on shared challenges, including border security."

"In collaboration with these partners, Canada has been monitoring migration trends from Mexico and has no plans to reimpose the visa requirement at this time."

Canadian Ministry of Immigration 

"We're seeing an unprecedented level of migration around the world and in our region."

"The challenge of migration is a hemispheric one, and hemispheric challenges require hemispheric solutions."

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas

A train traveling near the US-Mexico border toward Uvalde, Texas, was stopped Friday after a Union Pacific conductor reported stowaways on board   From Kinney County Sheriff's Office/Facebook

 

Mr. Mayorkas has stated that the United States' position is that Canada should reinstate visa requirements for Mexicans seeking to enter Canada. Canada's previous Conservative government led by then Prime Minister Stephen Harper viewed it as a necessary step to impose a visa requirement for Mexican citizens wishing to enter Canada, a step that the government of Mexico was displeased with but which Canada felt to be warranted.

When the new Liberal-led government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau entered the scene, that visa requirement was summarily suspended. It was PM Trudeau's decision to reverse almost every decision taken by the previous government, and the visa requirement was among them. Now the Biden Administration, struggling with an ongoing and increasingly problematic migration flood has asked Canada to reimpose visa requirements on Mexicans entering Canada.

The hope is to enable the prevention of a surge of illegal crossings at the northern border between Canada and the United States. Canada has responded through its minister of immigration that there are no plans in the foreseeable future to accommodate the American request. Visa-free travel by Mexican citizens is to continue. And the United States is left to deal with the chronic illegal immigration problem that has vexed every one of its administrations.

At the present time, Mexican nationals and anyone else who is in Mexico can board a plane to fly to Canada, enter visa-free then surreptitiously make their way into the United States. This loophole accommodates not only Mexican citizens but Asians, Russians, Central and South Americans, Middle Easterners and any others who have a mind to arrive in Mexico for the sole purpose of using Canada as a route to the United States.

Canada's current prime minister, Justin Trudeau, visualizes huge immigration numbers from across the globe entering Canada as a positive for the country's future. To increase the size of its population to relieve a shortage of workers in Canada, both at the present time and into the future. In the process he has exacerbated an acute shortage of medical personnel and stretched the capacity of the universal Canadian health system to breaking point. A housing shortage is another issue a rapid introduction of a half-million emigrants yearly exacerbates.

Yet the Trudeau administration is unmoved by the U.S. request for obvious reasons. Migration "encounters" at the U.S.-Mexico border have reached record heights, with illegal entrants from all over the world; Europe, Asia, Central or South America who transit through Mexico (and Canada) with the aid of human traffickers. Imposing a massive financial burden for the U.S. in policing and asylum financial support, as for children abandoned at the border.

A recent estimate for the cost of the immigration crisis in the U.S. for 2022 revealed the cost at all levels of government to have reached $150.7 billion. A total that is greater than the entire budget of the Canadian government for that same year. Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas met last week with his Canadian counterpart at the 2023 Canada-United States Cross-Border Crime Forum held in Ottawa. The number of Mexican migrants entering the U.S. from Canada has steadily increased since the visa requirement was lifted in 2016.

While the number of apprehended migrants remains relatively small, they have doubled in a year and the concern is that as the U.S. continues to crack down on its illegal immigration problem at the Mexican border, numbers using Canada as a backdoor entry will dramatically increase, without the reimposition of visa requirements.