Deportation drop worries former senior official
Border agency suffers from ‘grossly mismanaged’ system, ex-enforcement director says
An unexplained 50-per-cent drop in deportations — both nationally and locally — over the last three years has a former senior executive with Canada’s border agency worried.
Reg Williams, the former director of immigration enforcement at the Canada Border Service Agency’s Greater Toronto enforcement centre, has written to the Clerk of the Privy Council, claiming that the rapid and precipitous drop in deportations is a red flag that suggests the program is “grossly mismanaged.”
Williams is calling for a mechanism to review the deportation process and the CBSA. “I’m not raising this to embarrass the government or the department,” said Williams. “I’m raising this because it’s an issue that citizens should be aware of.”
The border agency hasn’t explained the drop in removals.
Williams believes it’s due to mismanagement, but refugee advocates believe it may be because of the changes in the immigration and refugee act that make it harder to come to Canada and claim refugee status.
For its part, the CBSA is championing its efforts.
“The removal numbers are indicative of CBSA’s significant efforts toward clearing backlogs in the system,” said spokesperson Travis O’Brien, pointing to a national program to remove failed refugee claimants as an example of the success of the agency.
CBSA has removed 8,393 unsuccessful refugee claimants over a three-year period ending March, 2013, CBSA’s O’Brien says.
Nationally, the number of overall deportations has dropped 50 per cent from just over 16,000 in fiscal year 2011-2012 to 8,000 in fiscal 20142015, Williams says. The number of deportations in the GTA has also dropped at a similar rate, according to Williams’ calculations.
When Williams left his job, more than 8,000 people were deported a year from the GTA. In the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015, overall deportations from the GTA were only at 4,000. CBSA data confirm Williams’ claims. In 2012, 18,960 people were removed from Canada. But for the first half of 2015 that number is only 4,712. Here in the GTA in 2012, 9,584 people were deported, according to CBSA figures.
Halfway through 2015 only1,963 individuals were removed. These trends all say the system isn’t working, Williams maintains in his letter to the Clerk of the Privy Council.
There has also been a drop in arrests under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act since 20122013, from 2,837 that year to 1,887 in 2014-2015, according to CBSA data. And yet yearly “jail days” have increased to “the highest in Canadian history,” Williams said. One “jail day” is defined as one individual detained at a provincial facility for one day.
Williams believes the drop in deportations from the GTA is due to a cutback in CBSA investigators. The CBSA, however, provided numbers showing only a slight decline in investigators.