OTTAWA — Nearly 30,000 individuals wanted for deportation are currently at large in Canada, newly-released documents suggest.
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In a response to an order paper question filed by Fort McMurray-Cold Lake MP Laila Goodridge on deportation cases currently before the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), 29,731 people are listed as “wanted” by immigration authorities — described as those who failed to appear for deportation proceedings, including those with immigration warrants issued against them.
The vast majority — 21,325 — went missing from Ontario, the largest cohort of immigration absconders in the country.
As Canada’s affordability crisis, plus threats of punitive tariffs from U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, has the federal government rethinking Canada’s problematic and ineffective border policy, the Trudeau Liberals’ plans on slowing Canada’s record population growth and tightening our immigration space involves relying on the voluntary departure of nearly 2.4 million people over the next two years.
In October, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced plans to cut the number of permanent residents coming into Canada from current targets of 500,000 — down to 395,000 next year and 380,000 by 2026.
According to the newly-released data, there are 457,646 people in various stages of being deported from Canada as of Oct. 21 — 27,675 people are listed in the “working” category, or those in the final stages of the removal process; 378,320 people being “monitored,” or those awaiting refugee status decisions, pending permanent status resident or facing “unenforceable” removal orders; 20,921 people granted a stay from removal proceedings; and 29,730 who were ordered removed but their location isn’t known.
After Ontario, Quebec saw the most people wanted by the CBSA with 6,109, followed by 1,390 in British Columbia, 705 for Alberta, and between 0 and 100 for other provinces and territories.
Broken down by nationality, Mexicans represent the largest number of the total number of people in Canada’s deportation pipeline, with 7,622 people.
That’s followed by 3,955 Indians, 1,785 Americans, 1,516 people from China, 864 from Pakistan, 858 Nigerians and 794 Colombians.
Other notable numbers include 26 people with unknown citizenship, 83 people who are stateless, 13 Palestinians, 24 North Koreans and 56 Russians.
Those numbers are not exact, as CBSA withheld deportation numbers under five out of privacy concerns.
While threats of mass deportations have played a large role in the incoming Trump White House’s border policy south of the border, it seems Canada has been reluctant to go that route — relying instead on visa-holders and temporary residents on voluntarily leaving once their time in Canada has expired.
Foreign nationals are “expected to respect the conditions of their entry and depart at the end” of their stay, a CBSA spokesperson told Bloomberg News earlier this week. When it becomes aware of someone who’s failed to do so, the agency may seek an exclusion order, with detention seen as a “measure of last resort.”
The Toronto Sun reached out to CBSA for comment but has yet to receive a response.