Miller Expects 4.9 Million Foreigners to Leave Canada Voluntarily

With 4.9 million temporary permits set to expire within the next year, Canada’s Immigration Minister, Marc Miller, says he expects them to depart Canada voluntarily.

Foreigners with no legal authority to remain in Canada are expected to leave voluntarily; “That is what is expected.” When Conservative MP Tom Kmiec brought up that number in front of the House of Commons immigration committee, Immigration Minister Marc Miller responded.

Kmiec asked, “Your department filed information with Parliament showing that 4.9 million visas will expire between September 2024 and December 2025. How will we know how many of those actually leave?”

Miller stated that the federal government would “carefully monitor” the situation. Our government has various systems to monitor these matters, including “the Canada Border Services Agency’s investigation and prosecution of those who violate immigration laws.”

“Are you saying 100% are expected to leave or are you going to send the Canada Border Services Agency to chase all 766,000?” Asked Kmiec.

Miller said no, adding, “Some folks do obtain renewals. “Some people obtain postgraduate work permits.”

As of May 3, the Department of Immigration reported 1,073,435 foreign students in Canada.

“There are an increasing number of students making asylum claims, I think, with very little hope,” Miller told the crowd. “Whether you like it or not, they have the right to due process in this country.” I don’t believe you would try to deny it to them.”

Authorized to Leave Canada

According to an April 24 briefing note from the immigration department, up to half a million unauthorized foreigners could be in Canada.

Trudeau’s published documents show that 4.9 million people are temporarily here and are supposed to leave by December 31 of next year,” said Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre in Ottawa.

“We asked what the plan was to track their departure, and the immigration minister said, ‘We’re just going to take people at their word”.

Canada’s immigration minister has also stated that he intends to propose reforms to the country’s refugee system, which might include expediting refusals of cases with little likelihood of success.

Experts and advocates worried it might violate asylum-seekers’ right to due process and face legal challenges.

“I intend to bring up additional initiatives. I intend to reform the system. “It is not working as it should,” Immigration Minister Marc Miller told a parliamentary committee on Monday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been shifting his government’s friendly posture toward migrants. He promises to limit immigration and Canada’s population over the next two years as his party falls in polls and Canadians express waning support for new arrivals.

The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, an independent adjudicator of refugee claims, is receiving claims from “people with increasingly fewer hopes to stay in Canada and being counseled to file, I believe unjustly, asylum claims where they should not be able to do so,” Miller added.

Thousands of False Asylum Claims

In recent months, Canada has seen an all-time high number of refugee claims. Although the monthly total fell to roughly 17,400 in October from above 20,000 in July, the number of claims pending was the highest ever, at more than 260,000 last month.

Statistics Canada reports that more than 265,000 non-permanent residents arrived in Canada during the second quarter of 2024.

Miller has called into question the legitimacy of thousands of refugee petitions filed by international students.

The reforms would try, in part, to discourage people who planned to utilize their international studies as a gateway to permanent residency in Canada from submitting refugee claims as a last-ditch effort to stay now that new laws have closed that avenue. Before the new criteria, refugee claims were on the rise.

“There are an increasing number of international students making asylum claims, I think with very little hope, given their conditions,” Miller told the committee.

“Is there anything we can do to make that more streamlined? I would invite you to follow us in the coming weeks as we propose additional changes to the immigration and asylum systems.”

Miller did not specify what the adjustments would be. Spokesman Renee LeBlanc Proctor said in an email on Tuesday that he is “exploring options related to asylum reforms.”