A Royal Canadian Mounted Police car leaves Roxham Road, the site where many migrants have previously crossed illegally, in Lacolle, along the Canada-U.S. border, on Feb. 2.ANDREJ IVANOV/AFP/Getty Images
Canadian immigration officers have been given broader powers to cancel travel permits and visitor visas under new rules designed to bolster border security and clamp down on fraud.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has issued “strengthened” regulations, including the ability to revoke visitor visas if their holders destroy their passports. Officers can also rescind authorization to travel to Canada if they believe a visitor may not leave the country.
Airlines have been informed of the new rules, which could also mean some people will not be allowed to board flights, according to a notification of the new regulations in the federal government’s Canada Gazette.
“A small portion of travellers may be turned back at the airport or at a port of entry in the case of their document being cancelled prior to their entry to Canada,” the notification says.
The changes “enhance the integrity of Canada’s temporary residence programs and are expected to strengthen security at the border and within Canada,” according to an online posting from IRCC.
The regulations expand current powers to cancel immigration documents – for example, if someone has concealed a criminal history – and aligns Canada with practices in the U.S., Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
The notification did not refer to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to impose across-the-board 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian goods. The tariffs were paused until at least March 4. Mr. Trump initially linked the tariff threat to security at the shared border, but afterward said the 30-day pause was to see if a final economic deal could be negotiated. He has said that Canada is imposing unfair duties, trade barriers or taxes on American imports.
Canada Border Services Agency intelligence documents have identified that some migrants who cross illegally into the U.S. fly into Canada first on visitor visas and try to slip across the border within weeks or months. CBSA works closely with IRCC to identify fraud including combatting organized crime and smuggling rings.
The government expects an additional 7,000 temporary resident visas (TRVs), also known as visitor visas, as well as work permits and study permits to be cancelled every year as a result of the regulatory changes.
The new regulations also allow the cancellation of an international student’s study permit, which allows them to attend a college or university in Canada, if an immigration officer scrutinizing the paperwork thinks it was based on “an administrative error.”
In addition, the regulatory changes introduce severe consequences for travellers who destroy their passports and travel documents. A visitor visa will be automatically cancelled if a passport or travel document is lost, stolen, destroyed or abandoned. People who destroy their passports can also be denied the ability to board a plane to get to Canada or to enter Canada at a border post.
“An electronic travel authorization that was issued to a foreign national is cancelled if … the passport or other travel document in respect of which the electronic travel authorization was issued is lost, stolen or destroyed,” the regulations say.
Immigration lawyer Richard Kurland said destroying travel documents is a “historically proven method” used by some migrants to avoid being deported. Many countries will not accept back their citizens without a passport or an identity card.
He said some asylum seekers destroy their passport to conceal their nationality so they can claim they are citizens of countries where persecution is rife.
“Destroying one’s personal government documents frustrates any removal because you don’t know who you are dealing with,” he said. “People have historically destroyed passports to make it difficult to deport. Until biometrics replace passports, you are stuck with this.”
But immigration lawyer Yameena Ansari warned that there are many “innocent situations in which a passport could be lost, stolen or destroyed – something simple like running a passport through the laundry, or something more hazardous like trekking through a conflict zone to arrive in Canada.”
“To think that a visitor visa will be cancelled for a minor error or due to extreme hardship is a frightening turn of policy,” she said.
Ms. Ansari also expressed concern about the discretion to cancel a visa if an officer believes a visitor might not leave the country, and said some immigration decisions in the past had been influenced by prejudice.
“With this new provision, visitors to Canada – especially racialized visitors – will have a constant anxiety that their status could be revoked at any time if an officer mistrusts their reasons for being here,” she said.
Renée LeBlanc Proctor, spokesperson for Immigration Minister Marc Miller, said the amended rules would ensure consistency in the cancellation of documents and “sharpen the accuracy of our records.”
“These updated regulations better empower agents to use these authorities on a case-by-case basis, which helps protect the integrity of the system and provide more efficient service to those waiting for TRV documents,” she said.