Feds divided on plan to allow undocumented migrants apply to stay in Canada, says Miller

Immigration Minister Marc Miller says a federal program to give migrants without valid papers the right to stay in Canada will not be coming any time soon as talks continue in cabinet about the plan, which some of his colleagues sharply oppose.

 

The proposal – which would include allowing rejected asylum claimants and former international students with expired study permits to apply to remain in Canada – was presented by Mr. Miller to cabinet before MPs began their summer recess.

 

But in an interview, Mr. Miller said no conclusion about introducing a broad “regularization” program for migrants who have been in Canada for several years has yet been made and that discussions between ministers are continuing.

 

Mr. Miller said there hasn’t yet been agreement within government on the program and it could take months to introduce.

He said what is causing him to pause are “views that I respect, people that care about these issues that are radically opposed and diametrically opposed, and not necessarily from people that [you] would necessarily think would have that thought process.”

 

Under the plan, migrants without documents, including people with Canadian children who have lived here for several years, would be able to apply for permanent residence.

 

The Prime Minister issued a mandate to former immigration minister Sean Fraser in 2021 that asked him to “further explore ways of regularizing status for undocumented workers who are contributing to Canadian communities.” A decision by cabinet was expected this spring.

 

But Mr. Miller said the program “is not something that is going to get rolled out soon” adding that polling is showing that Canadians are divided on the issue.

 

“If there is a clear conclusion, I will be quite clear to Canadians about it, but there isn’t one right now,” he said. “What I do know is that given the ongoing discussions, and they are ongoing – they have not come to an end – it isn’t something that I have any confidence will be rolled out in the short term.”

 

In the past year, public support for immigration has sharply declined. Mr. Miller has frozen the immigration target at 500,000 in 2026, as well as introducing a cap on international students.

 

He said there are differing estimates of how many people are living in Canada without valid documents. He says there could be between 300,000 to 600,000 but no one actually knows.

 

Lisa Lalande, chief executive officer of the Century Initiative, a charity focused on population growth and immigration, said “the uncertain number of undocumented workers poses problems for our ability to plan and our ability to integrate these workers into the economy.”

 

Mr. Miller said the proposed program is often misunderstood and it “would not cover all the cohorts of people that are here that don’t have their papers currently.”

 

But giving people who have been living in Canada for years a path to permanent residence is a question of “fairness,” he said, and makes “a heck of a lot of sense” including because it would boost the economy.

 

“I think it is the right thing to do from an economic perspective, from a humanitarian perspective. It’s just smart,” he said.

 

He said allowing undocumented parents of Canadian-born children to stay would “put them on a par with their own Canadian kids.”

 

Mr. Miller said Canadians are split on the issue, with some myths circulating about the proposal, including equating a regularization program with “queue-jumping” by people who are not entitled to be here.

 

“I’ve seen polling of relative levels of sophistication, to be polite, that do show that Canadians are divided. I think what they also show is that when you educate Canadians, they seem to be more inclined to support regularization,” he said.

 

A number of other countries have introduced programs to shield undocumented migrants from deportation. In Ireland, a program launched in 2022 ran for six months and gave people who had lived there for four years the chance to apply for permission to remain.

 

U.S. President Joe Biden announced this month that thousands of undocumented spouses of American citizens will be able to apply for permanent residency without leaving the country.

More than 20 labour organizations, including the Canadian Labour Congress, as well as migrant groups, churches and the New Democratic Party support a broad regularization program.

 

Syed Hussan, spokesperson for the Migrant Rights Network, said people in Canada with no status cannot open a bank account, get a credit card or buy a car on credit. They would inject billions into the economy and start to buy cars and fridges if they got the required paperwork, he predicted.

 

He said he was disappointed that an expected decision on a regularization program had not been reached. He warned that for it to be in place before the general election, by next October, there is no room for delay. It would take months to set up and would need to be open for six to nine months to allow migrants to apply.

 

Tourism Minister Soraya Martinez Ferrada, who came to Canada as a refugee from Chile, said in an interview that undocumented people are living “in the shadows” in Canada, which “if you look very coldly at the economic side of it, it doesn’t make any sense.

 

“You want these people to contribute to the system.”

 

 

 

This article was first reported by The Globe and Mail