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Canada Is Ramping Up Deportations, with 400 a Week
Canada’s immigration enforcement agency is ramping up deportations and is hoping to sustain an annual target of 20,000 over the next couple of years. The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) deported 22,500 foreign nationals in 2025—the highest annual total in its history—and is currently removing approximately 400 individuals from Canada each week, an agency spokesperson told me in an interview.
Canada has a high number of migrants “without status” given the policy change in late 2023, when the country reversed course on immigration by tightening the criteria for admitting international students and temporary foreign workers. In addition to deportation, they also face the prospect of being denied future visa applications.
The number of people in Canada without a valid visa remains guesswork. Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre said in a recent podcast interview that he estimated the number of people who may be overstaying their work or study permits at 2 million. “[W]e don’t know how we are going to deal with their refusal to leave and what this means for housing, health care, and jobs,” Poilievre told former CBC news anchor Peter Mansbridge.
“My sense is we really don’t know how many temporary migrants may be overstaying their visas,” says professor Christopher Worswick, who is part of Carleton University’s Migration Policy Research Group. “Given the massive increase in temporary residents over the [Justin] Trudeau years, it is a major concern, but I don’t think there is a way to know for sure if people are leaving, which is, to say the least, unfortunate.”
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada data puts the number of temporary-stay visas and permits issued as of November 30, 2025, covering the years 2025–27, at a total of 5.1 million. The ministry notes this figure may be misleading, as it includes those who hold multiple visas or permits simultaneously (an international student, for example, can also have a work permit), those who may have extended or restored their status, or those who may have left Canada. Ottawa does not have a way of tracking those who leave.
Canada’s ongoing immigration crackdown has its detractors, who see the country turning its back on foreigners who were brought here to “subsidize” the education system and offer cheap labour on farms and factory floors over the preceding seven years.
“They are denied permit renewals and permanent residency and then criminalized for working to feed their families,” says Syed Hussan, co-executive director of the Migrant Workers Alliance for Change. “What is needed is equal rights and permanent resident status for all, not hunting down people who are working.”
The CBSA’s high target numbers for deportations rely on two drivers: a Border Watch Line, which specifically calls on tipsters to report (among others) “persons who have overstayed their status in Canada or who are working or studying in Canada without authorization,” and prosecuting employers for “the unauthorized hiring of foreign workers.” In the latest case, the agency has laid criminal charges against two directors and an employee of a Quebec company for hiring twenty-one foreign workers who were not authorized to work at the premises.
According to the CBSA spokesperson, the tip line is buzzing, receiving 47,900 tips in 2025. These included 9,400 specifically flagging suspected foreign nationals working illegally in Canada.
The agency has received new funding to ensure that it has the resources to enforce immigration laws, targeting about 20,000 annually over the next two years, the spokesperson said, prioritizing cases with a criminal history or national security concerns, such as terrorism.
Although those who study immigration enforcement see no parallels between Canada’s new-found vigour in enforcing visa rules and the gravity of what is currently unfolding in many American states, this focus on criminality is similar to the initial days of the immigration crackdown launched in the United States in January 2025. In the early days of US president Donald Trump’s second term, Immigration and Customs Enforcement began targeting convicted criminals, drug and weapons smugglers, and human traffickers. But ICE’s tactics have now gone far beyond this stated goal, most recently on the streets of Minneapolis. Whether Canada’s tactics ever attain that level of harshness remains to be seen.
Originally published as “Border agency ramping up ‘illegal’ removals; public swamping tip line” by New Canadian Media. Reprinted with permission.
The post Canada Is Ramping Up Deportations, with 400 a Week first appeared on The Walrus.
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