Border authorities unable to locate nearly 600 criminals due for deportation

Canadian border authorities have lost track of nearly 600 foreign nationals with criminal records who are slated for deportation.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Canadian border authorities have lost track of nearly 600 foreign nationals with criminal records who are slated for deportation.

CBSA records obtained by True North show 599 foreign nationals failed to attend their deportation proceedings and remain at large.

Of that figure, 431 were found guilty of serious crimes such as sexual assault and 315 have evaded deportation for more than three years. Another 46 have evaded authorities for at least two years.

Serious criminals are those convicted of offences carrying a minimum 10-year prison sentence.

A total of 1,635 foreign nationals convicted of crimes in Canada are facing deportation; 401 are currently in prison and will be deported once released.

However, once slated for deportation, foreign nationals are granted the right to appeal to the courts, a process that often takes years. Failed asylum claimants are granted the same rights.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre blamed the Liberal government for the news.

“Liberals let criminals who were supposed to be deported run free. Now, the government has no idea where they are. No wonder crime and chaos continue to run rampant in our streets,” said Poilievre.

“Criminals with no right to be in Canada must be immediately deported. Bring safety back to our streets.”

Poilievre’s comments refer to thousands of foreign nationals whose criminal convictions were forgiven by Ottawa over an 11-year period under the Trudeau-Carney government.

“A catastrophic failure of Immigration, Justice and Public Safety,” said Senator Leo Housakos in a post to X on Tuesday.

“Is it any surprise that the same Liberal Ministers who lost track of over 1 million people, and who pushed for the entry of known terrorists into Canada, are now overseeing this disaster?”

Most foreign nationals facing deportation are supervised in their communities. However, some are electronically monitored and must check in with authorities.

Following pushback from human rights and migrant groups, CBSA now relies less on detaining high-risk offenders in provincial prisons. Instead, it operates immigration holding centres in cities such as Toronto, Laval and Surrey.

Three Chilean nationals, suspected members of a criminal organization specializing in home theft, escaped from the Laval CBSA detention centre last December and have not been found.

"The Canada Border Services Agency removed over 18,000 inadmissible people last fiscal year—the most in a decade," a CBSA spokesperson told True North.

"As part of Canada's Border Plan, the CBSA has committed to increasing the number of removals to 20,000 for the next two fiscal years."