PACP - Parliamentary Context PACP Appearance: OAG Report 1 on Immigration Removals - Nov 24, 2020

Background and Logistics

On November 13, 2020, the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (PACP) requested the Deputy Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) along with the President of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Chairperson of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) as well as officials from the Office of the Auditor General to appear on November 24, 2020, from 11:00 am – 1:00pm.

On July 8, 2020, the Office of the Auditor General published its report on Immigration Removals. The audit was aimed at determining whether the CBSA, in coordination with IRCC and IRB, removed individuals ordered to leave Canada as soon as possible to protect the integrity of the immigration system and maintain public safety. Findings revealed that:

• CBSA did not remove the majority of individuals who were subject to enforceable removal orders with minimal delay;
• Removal delays resulted from poor data quality and case management weaknesses; and
• Deficiencies in information sharing with IRCC also caused delays.

Of the three resulting recommendations to CBSA, only one has IRCC implications; where both institutions are to establish a process to ensure that any new information entering the database is accurate and timely. In response to this recommendation, IRCC is committed to working with the Canada Border Services Agency to ensure accurate and timely data entry, including by the Department of Justice Canada, to assist the agency in managing its removal program as well as to deliver on the department’s program integrity and quality assurance objectives.

Measures to this, as seen in IRCC’s Detailed Action Plan, include:

• Building on the monitoring, oversight, and compliance regime that was developed and implemented in response to the 2019 Spring Report of the Auditor General of Canada, Report 2—Processing of Asylum Claims, which focused on asylum and related enforcement processes; and
• Developing and implementing an oversight mechanism to monitor litigation data entry, including by the Department of Justice Canada. This will ensure that data entry is timely and that accurate information is available in the removal inventory.

The following departmental officials will be in attendance with our Deputy Minister: (TBC)

• Marian Campbell Jarvis, Associate Deputy Minister, Strategic Program and Policy
• Nicole Giles, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Operations.

Other appearing officials include Canada Border Services Agency President, John Ossowski, and Scott Harris, Vice-President of Intelligence and Enforcement. The IRB Chairperson, Richard Wex, will be supported by Greg Kipling, Deputy Chair, Immigration Division.

Officials will be in virtual attendance for the full duration of the 2 hour meeting. Due to network requirements, the IT team from the House of Commons and IRCC IT Ops will coordinate testing and hardware distribution as required. The Grosse Ile boardroom has been reserved for the Deputy Minister and IRCC officials for the appearance.

Each Department and Agency will be allotted a maximum of 5 minutes for opening remarks, which will be followed by rounds of questioning. As established by the committee in the first meeting, rounds of questioning will proceed as follows:

• First round: CPC, LPC, BQ, and NDP (6 minutes each)
• Second round: CPC (5 minutes), LPC (5), BQ (2.5), NDP (2.5), CPC (5), LPC (5)

Environmental Analysis

IRCC’s role in the successful application of Audit recommendations involve information sharing, where:

• inland offices’ data entry on unenforceable removal orders are entered into the system at the time of the making of a claim at inland offices.
• Federal Court decisions of failed claimants are shared between the Department of Justice, IRCC to ensure that Federal Court data entry is timely, accurate, and is available to CBSA Services through the removal inventory.

Recent topics of interest include:

• Asylum claimants (family reunification, Hong Kong nationals)
• Public safety during the Pandemic/releasing detainees while awaiting deportation
• Processing delays
• Data management and information sharing between local offices and the ones abroad
• Lack of monitoring and enforcement of removal orders
• Implementation of a regularization program for people on implied status
• Creation of an Ombudsman office to oversee IRCC and CBSA delays
• Protecting international students, including the victim of on-campus intimidation
• Investing resources in processing and set standards
• Funding in support increasing deportation levels/reducing the inventory

Media and News

Canada Border Services Agency refusing to disclose evidence from ‘vigilante’ officer in deportation case (November 17, 2020)

CBSA has been trying to deport Toure, a failed refugee claimant, February 2013 Toure was detained for over 5 years, mostly in a maximum-security provincial jail, because the CBSA believed he would not show up for his deportation if it could be arranged Toure was released in September 2018 when the CBSA admitted it did not know when it would be able to deport him. He was re-detained this month and is scheduled to be deported Dec. 11.

Transcript: Minister Mendicino, Hong Kong News Conference (November 12, 2020)

Hon. Marco Mendicino: Well, you're quite right that the focus of today's announcement is very much on expanding opportunities, creating a stronger pathway towards our economic recovery, and building that brighter, long-term prosperity, which, which is, is very much the product of the ties that exist between the people of Canada and Hong Kong. But in addition to that, as I outlined in my remarks, there are a number of areas in which we are aligning our policies within the asylum system to reflect the situation in Hong Kong, including accelerating pre-risk removals for those who might otherwise not have been eligible, and by that, I mean those failed asylum claimants from Hong Kong.

Pushing for status for all as Ottawa ramps up deportations (August 25, 2020)

CBSA tries to deport individuals within a year of a final negative decision since after that mark, individuals may access a pre-removal risk assessment (success rate is less than 5 per cent). The CBSA aims to increase deportations to at least 10,000 annually, and received an additional $36 million at the beginning in 2019/20 to support their 15,500 annual deportation target by 2022 As of April 2019, the CBSA had 197,000 removal orders in its inventory:

• including 132,500 unenforceable removal orders (individuals awaiting word on asylum claims and permanent residence applications) and
• 14,500 "stayed" cases where deportation is legally prohibited.

Border agency lost track of 34,700 foreign nationals slated for removal: report (July 8, 2020) CBSA was unaware that it should have been monitoring 1,500 removal orders for enforcement 2,300 orders were delayed because of the poor flow of information between IRCC and CBSA Audit revealed thousands of files were left untouched for years at CBSA, with some being high priority removals (related to criminal cases) In addition to improving its removals strategy, CBSA will enhance file tracking and case triage to ensure priority ones are addressed quickly

CIMM - Removal Orders (March 20, 2020) CBSA is responsible for managing and enforcing removal orders. Budget 2019 investment: $1.18B over five years, starting in 2019-2020, and $55M per year ongoing, to enhance the integrity of Canada’s borders and asylum system CBSA is responsible for removing all foreign nationals under an active removal order, including failed claimants. IRCC processes pre-removal risk assessments applications once the CBSA has initiated the removal procedures, for failed claimants whose 12-month pre-removal risk assessments bar has expired. IRCC and CBSA are working on interoperability between respective information technology systems, and on testing some integration of functions through the Integrated Claims Assessment Centre pilot in Toronto.

Parliamentary Environment

PACP members commonly seek information as to why situations identified by the Auditor General occurred, and how are the recommendations implemented.

Anticipated lines of questioning include:

• What is the Government’s plan to locate missing individuals ordered to be removed from Canada after the COVID-19 pandemic?
• How has IRCC contributed to locating the missing individuals?
• What measures has IRCC implemented to ensure Federal Court decisions of failed claimants are shared between the Department of Justice, IRCC to ensure that Federal Court data entry is timely, accurate, and is available to CBSA Services through the removal inventory?
• What are the effects of the additional funding to enhance the integrity of Canada’s borders and asylum system? (CBSA)
• What has the interoperability testing and integration of functions through the Integrated Claims Assessment Centre pilot in Toronto revealed so far?
• How will those findings affect the implementation of the OAG’s recommendations?