page_title: Illegal immigration to Canada
section_title: Statistics
hierarchical_section_title: Illegal immigration to Canada / Statistics
caption_attribution_description: English: The US-Canadian border at the end of Roxham Road in Champlain, NY (right); pole on the left is for security cameras and other remote monitoring by U.S. Border Patrol. On the left side of the vista is Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, QC, where tents have been set up to accommodate the processing of asylum requests by U.S. non-citizen residents, who enter Canada illegally here, fearful of changes made to immigration regulations by the Trump administration.
context_page_description: Irregular immigration to Canada is the act of a person who is not a Canadian citizen or permanent resident entering or remaining in Canada in a manner contrary to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and its associated regulations. This includes persons who entered Canada on a travel visa but remained beyond the period of stay specified, as well as persons who entered Canada without presenting themselves at a port of entry.
  Canada is a signatory of the United Nations' 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, which forbids imposition of penalties on refugees who may have entered in contravention to national laws in order to seek protection; this only applies to claimants while their case is being processed and to persons formally recognised as refugees.
context_section_description: From January 2017 to March 2018, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police intercepted 25,645 people crossing the border into Canada illegally. Public Safety Canada estimated that another 2,500 came across in April 2018 for a total of just over 28,000, of which 1,000 had been removed from Canada. Federal government ministers expected that "close to 90 per cent" of asylum claimants would be rejected.
  The last audit of the Canadian population was performed in 2004 that indicated approximately 36,000 more individuals over a span of 6 years became illegal residents within Canada. These statistics are considered inaccurate because Canada does not record the information of illegal individuals leaving the country, but it is the last authentic value provided. A federal government draft report from 2001 included an estimate of 100,000 illegal immigrants then residing in Canada.
  In the 1980s, large numbers of Brazilian foreign nationals would arrive in Canada claiming refugee statuses. They would then reside until the end of their refugee process which allowed them to study, work, and collect social benefits. Canada noticed the large trend and imposed a requirement in 1987 of Brazilian foreign nationals needing to attain a visa in order to arrive in Canada, making it a little more difficult for many to immigrate. During their stay, these foreign nationals would develop the skills to pass the Canadian immigration tests, and become Canadian legal citizens. Those who would not pass the citizenship tests would either leave back to Brazil, or continue to live as illegal residents.
  In 2008, Auditor General of Canada Sheila Fraser found that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) had lost track of 41,000 individuals who had been ordered deported. In cases, individuals can be allowed a temporary access into Canada with a Temporary Resident Permit as long as they do not pose an obvious threat to Canadians. The permit can be issued by the CBSA or a border service officer for a cost of $200 per permit; the CBSA issued 13,412 permits in 2006. Permits allow legal residency for a period ranging from one day to three years. During this time period, the legal documents are gathered for individuals to be deported back to the country they emigrated from. This procedure at times could create challenges such as retrieving the legal documentation for deporting, hence the Temporary Resident Permits are provided enough time for such obstacles to be overcome efficient and effectively.
  In 2017, after U.S. President Donald Trump had enforced American laws against illegal immigration in the U.S., immigrants leaving the U.S. and entering Canada increased. Quebec saw 75% of the resulting crossings from the U.S. for Canada, and Programme régional d’accueil et d’intégration des demandeurs d’asile (PRAIDA) helped 1,174 asylum seekers in July 2017 compared to the 180 people during the previous year. Montreal had to re-purpose its Olympic Stadium to house the immigrants.
caption: Temporary facilities for processing asylum seekers at border between Lacolle, Quebec and Champlain, NY, in 2017
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D3X", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC 2017 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2019:05:20 23:31:54", "Image ExifOffset": "220", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "966", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8530", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/250", "EXIF FNumber": "8", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:08:14 11:01:30", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:08:14 11:01:30", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "995723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "6", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1/2", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "18/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Fine weather", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "28", "EXIF SubSecTime": "66", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "66", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "66", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "5088", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3776", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "28", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "5028808", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[28, 300, 7/2, 28/5]", "EXIF LensModel": "28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6"}