Immigration and Refugee Board facing four-year backlog of asylum claimants

Illegal immigrants in Canada will not receive a ruling from the Immigration and Refugee Board until summer 2029 if they file a refugee claim now, due to record-high immigration levels.

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Illegal immigrants in Canada will not receive a ruling from the Immigration and Refugee Board until summer 2029 if they file a refugee claim now, due to record-high immigration levels, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

“Given our ability to finalize about 80,000 a year, it would be about 44 months,” Immigration and Refugee Board chair Manon Brassard said during a House of Commons immigration committee meeting Thursday.

Brassard stated the backlog is a consequence of “two years of historically high level intake” spurred by the Trudeau Liberals, with intake jumping more than five times over the last three years.

Asylum claims have climbed from 54,000 to 290,000 since 2022 and will take until nearly the end of the decade to process.

“The shock to the system at the Board was this large, large increase that got us to historical levels. Such large numbers were not expected,” Brassard said.

“We were funded for 60,000. We finalized 78,000. To contrast this with the previous 10 years, intake was on average 29,000 or 30,000 and the Board finalized on average 26,000.”

During the meeting, Bloc Québécois MP Mario Simard blamed former prime minister Justin Trudeau, citing a 2017 social media post where Trudeau stated Canada would welcome “those fleeing persecution, terror and war” with open arms.

“To those fleeing persecution, terror and war, Canadians will welcome you regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength. Welcome to Canada,” Trudeau wrote.

According to Simard, the post had a ripple effect, inundating legislators’ offices with claims. He noted his constituency office “wound up with an incalculable number of asylum seekers asking for help.”

“When a Prime Minister said we’re a welcoming country, come to us, you’re welcome, that’s warm, that’s friendly, that’s generous but at a time when people are getting their information from social media I can understand at my own modest level, given the number of requests I received, there is a snowball effect,” he said.

The initial security screening for border crossers and refugee claimants typically takes six to eight months, during which claimants remain in Canada, often collecting benefits.

Conservative MP Costas Menegakis also noted that claiming asylum not only provides an easy entry into Canada but also moves claimants to the front of the immigration queue.

“Asylum seekers get to jump the queue,” Menegakis said. “They get in front of all the other immigration streams and this is an easy way for them to get in.”

According to the Department of Justice, free legal expenses for illegal immigrants have seen a 378% increase since 2017, coinciding with the former prime minister’s post.

The Carney government proposed a plan to address the exponential number of asylum claimants in their newly unveiled budget by introducing a “one-time initiative” to recognize a sizable cohort as permanent residents.

“This practical step is a reflection of the fact that the vast majority of these people cannot return to the country of their origin,” the budget reads. “It will also ensure that those in genuine need of Canada’s protection have their permanent status recognized, accelerating their full integration into Canadian society and their path to citizenship.”

According to Budget 2025, the amnesty measure will cost $120.4 million over four years but did not specify how many asylum seekers would be fast-tracked through the proposed initiative.

Meanwhile, the majority of Canadians remain steadfast in the opinion that immigration levels are too high, with most blaming poor government management.

A recent Environics Institute survey found that 56% of Canadians believe the “country accepts too many immigrants.”