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Minister opposes amnesty for illegal migrants

Ajit Jain
India Abroad Correspondent in Toronto

According to unofficial estimates, there are 200,000 illegal immigrants in Canada, most of them trapped doing low-paid jobs, unable to claim health-care benefits, send their children to school or report to the police if they are assaulted or beaten, says a front-page report in Saturday's Globe and Mail.

Immigration lawyers and others have suggested that these people should be given general amnesty so that they can lead a normal life of dignity and become full participants in Canada's development.

"We are talking about a huge, huge problem," Inky Mark of the main opposition Canadian Alliance and federal immigration critic, is quoted as saying. He reportedly favours allowing these illegal immigrants to apply for citizenship. That may be the only option as the number of illegal immigrants far exceeds the federal immigration department's enforcement capacity, Mark said.

But Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan disagrees. She believes such an amnesty would mean rewarding rule-breakers and queue-jumpers who undermine the integrity of Canada's generous immigration system.

She doesn't believe these people are law-abiding: "How can you be law-abiding if you came to Canada on a visitor's visa and you've overstayed and gone underground?" she reportedly argues.

Giving such illegal immigrants amnesty would be "rewarding that kind of unacceptable behaviour" and to Caplan it is also "contrary to Canadian values of fairness".

Mendel Green, one of the top immigration lawyers in Canada, disagrees with the minister. He reportedly supports the amnesty as these are people who have no recourse. "Employers can do whatever they want to them. No resources are put into prosecuting the employers who abuse these people. They get away with it year after year. They have a vested interest in keeping things the same," he was quoted as arguing.

This immigration lawyer, who also has illegal immigrants as his clients, also believes hunting down and deporting illegal immigrants are insurmountable tasks.

Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Central and South Americans, and others come to Canada on visitors' visas, which allow them to enter the country for a limited period. Many of them never leave and immigration officials have no way of tracking them down, the Toronto daily says.

Some of them apply for refugee status and when their claim is rejected go underground. The number of refugee claims denied is a window to how many illegal immigrants live in the country, the newspaper's report says.

Others abandon their refugee claims halfway and that is considered by some experts to be another barometer of illegal immigration.

Canada has announced an amnesty twice before, in 1973, when nearly 18,000 people came forward, and in the early 1980s, when about 4,000 people applied.

As against Canada's estimated 200,000 illegal immigrants, the Immigration and Naturalization Service in neighbouring United States estimates that five million illegal immigrants live in that country.

It has just announced a programme that could allow 640,000 illegal immigrants to apply for green cards (permanent residence) should they meet certain criteria and pay US$1,000.

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