Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale continued to be everything but clear on the status of illegals flowing across the U.S.-Canadian border. On Monday he suggested that asylum seekers don’t have a “free ticket” to Canadian citizenship — but that may be irrelevant if it is impossible to deport them out of the country, the Winnipeg Free Press reports.
What Goodale or Canadian immigration minister Ahmed Hussen aren’t saying is that Canada is legally prevented from deporting anyone from 12 scheduled countries, deemed to be war-torn or in the middle of a humanitarian crisis or environmental disaster. The only factors that nullify automatic acceptance is if they have a criminal record, are guilty of war crimes or are deemed a security risk.
So even if a refugee enters Canada from the U.S., is not assessed by the Canadian Border Services Agency to be a refugee, but is originally from one of the scheduled countries, they can stay.
One of those scheduled countries is Somalia. A CBC report recently revealed that the vast majority of the refugees arriving at the isolated prairie town of Emerson, Manitoba are Somali in origin.
They are making the journey from Minneapolis, Minnesota, through North Dakota and going north to the border.
While in sort of a twilight zone of immigration status, they can apply to be permanent residents while obtaining a work permit, or in lieu of that, securing government assistance.
Data from the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board indicates that the vast majority of those arriving from the scheduled countries and applying for refugee status are accepted.
Goodale’s office told the Winnipeg Free Press on Monday that temporary residency is not permanent residency but many deportation cases — when the government decides to press the issue — become mired in extended legal battles in the courts.
In a statement, Conservative public safety critic Tony Clement said Canadian immigration and refugee policy is not just about departmental policy anymore — not since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau decided in January to Tweet an invitation to the world’s refugees.
“I do believe we are now in a situation where the rhetoric of this government is ‘we will welcome anybody,’” he said. “The message is ‘come on in.’”
Clement also says the trend is to deport fewer people — regardless of their claims and situation.
In 2016, Canada issued 16,298 deportation orders but only deported 7,098 people.
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