Immigration

Media Release: NDP reacts to announcement regarding defrauded International Students

However, the minister failed to say if he’ll waive inadmissibility on the basis of misrepresentation or grant a pathway to permanent status for the students as called for systematically by the NDP. New Democrats urge the Minister on act on those quickly.

While the task force evaluates these cases, the government must also ensure that these students will be able to continue to work or study in Canada—otherwise they cannot survive. If they don’t have an Open work permit or study permit, they cannot afford rent or food. And these students have already invested everything they had to come study in Canada. The Minister must urgently act to ensure they are supported.

We cannot ignore the impactful and strong advocacy by the community and the students themselves calling on the Liberal government to take action. It is admirable to see mothers from the South Asian community looking after international students as their own children. A sense of compassion and action from the community makes a big difference in the lives of these students away from their own families.

These students can count on me and the NDP to continue to advocate for them.”

Voice: International students who are genuine victims of fraud will not be deported; others will be: Immigration Minister

Last Monday, Fraser in response to a query by NDP’s Critic for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Jenny Kwan, had reiterated in Parliament that the 700 Indian students, mainly from the state of Punjab, “will have an opportunity to remain in Canada.”

Kwan, who has taken up the students’ case in a very forceful way, said in Parliament: “International students who have been defrauded by crooked consultants should not be punished with deportation and inadmissibility based on misrepresentation. They have invested everything they have for a better future. They work hard, they study hard and under very difficult conditions. They are under enormous strain and their lives are in limbo. The Liberals can eliminate this uncertainty by allowing them to stay in Canada and build the lives of their dreams.”

CIMM#71: Exploitation Scheme Targeting Certain International Students

"With respect to the announcement that the minister made, I'd like to get a clarification on the issue around the inadmissibility based on misrepresentation. The minister said just now that the students who are victims would not be subjected to the five-year ban. Could the minister clarify whether that would mean the record of inadmissibility based on misrepresentation will be erased from their file?”

"Okay. I hope that when it comes to that, it would actually work that way for those students. What I'm worried about is that when you have that bad record, so to speak, that dark mark next to your name, sometimes an official who's processing the application will still say that there's misrepresentation on the record. I want to flag that as a concern, because we obviously would not want to have a second chapter to this issue down the road.

Now, there are students who are in a situation where they have been issued a removal order and they have filed to the Federal Court but, for example, have not yet had the hearing. They are waiting. There are those who have filed and who have been rejected, for example. There are those who have made an application to have their work permit extended, let's say, and they're now out of status but waiting to see what's going to happen to them.

Is the minister saying that with this new task force, those individuals should not worry about all of those outcomes and that their case will be assessed under the new task force?”

HANSARD: Bill S-8 Immigration and Refugee Act debate and comment on Conservatives’ political tricks

B.C. man among scores of international students facing deportation in suspected immigration scam

Recently, the NDP MP for Vancouver East, Jenny Kwan, moved a motion at the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration calling for deportations to be stayed, inadmissibility to be waived, and the affected students worked with to move them toward permanent residency.  "We need to do everything we can for the genuine victims of this fraud scam for them to be made whole," said Kwan.

A second motion has called on the government to conduct a study on how this scam occurred and how the government and the CBSA failed to catch the fraudulent documents when they were first submitted as part of the visa application process.

During house debates on Monday, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said his team is working to develop a process to allow legitimate victims of fraud to stay in Canada.
"However, to the extent that people committed fraud or were complicit in a fraudulent scheme, they will bear the consequences of not following Canadian laws," he said.

HANSARD: Will the minister grant these international students a pathway to permanent residency?

CBC: He came to Canada with a college acceptance in hand. Next week, he's scheduled for deportation

Jenny Kwan, the NDP's federal critic for Housing, Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship, has taken up Singh's case. Kwan says she believes he was a victim of fraud and says the number of students she's heard from who were impacted by similar practices is growing – though she did not provide the exact number of students she's spoken to.

On Wednesday night, the federal committee on immigration passed a motion calling for pending deportations to be stayed, according to a tweet Kwan posted. The committee will also begin a study into "the targeted exploitation scheme faced by 700 Punjabi international students," the motion reads.

Next, the committee will invite Sean Fraser, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, and Marco Mendicino, the Minister of Public Safety of Canada, as well as departmental officials, to attend the committee and provide a briefing on the situation, Kwan said. Then the committee will make recommendations to the government.

"It is so unbelievable that you have these unscrupulous immigration consultants taking advantage of people," Kwan said in an interview with CBC Toronto.

"Not only taking their money and not delivering what they said they would, but also destroying peoples lives and dreams."

Canadian Press: Amended bill that would extend citizenship rights to some born abroad heads to House

Conservatives say they value families but they took away the rights of Canadians born abroad to pass down their citizenship to their children if they were also born abroad -  breaking up families.  Some children are now stateless.  Instead of working together to fix it 14 years later, they tried to stop it with a 30 hour filibuster.  Who are they trying to kid with their self-serving justifications. 

CIMM#70 - 3: Debating Bill S-245 and Motion on International Students

"I, too, would like to thank the staff, particularly for their patience and endurance with this bill.

Now I'd like to move two motions, Madam Chair. I will move them one by one. I'll let the first one be dealt with first, and then when we've finished with that, if you can come to back to me, Madam Chair, I'll move my second motion.

My first motion is:

That, following news reports that international students admitted into Canada with valid study permits were issued fraudulent college acceptance letters by immigration consultants, and are now facing deportation, the committee issue a news release to condemn the actions of these fraudulent “ghost consultants” and call on the Canada Border Services Agency to immediately stay pending deportations of affected international students, waive inadmissibility on the basis of misrepresentation and provide an alternate pathway to permanent status for those impacted, such as the humanitarian and compassionate application process or a broad regularization program.

Madam Chair, I'd like to move this motion first. I think it is important that this motion be adopted by the committee.

As mentioned previously, this is an issue that I wrote to the minister about, long before this matter became a topic for this committee. I called for him to take action in raising the concerns of how these students have been victims of this fraudulent scheme. The measures we need the government to take are staying the deportations; waiving inadmissibility based on misrepresentation by the fraudulent, ghost consultants in submitting doctored admissions letters, unbeknownst to the students; and then, finally, giving the students a permit pathway.

As we know, when students are faced with the issue of inadmissibility, it stays on their record for five years. That applies to all immigration pathways, so this is very significant to their future.

These students—I've met with many of them now—are in such a terrible state. They've lost money, and they are stuck in a terrible situation. Some of them have deportation orders. Others have pending meetings with the CBSA.”

UFCW: Local unions, national collaboration turns hardship into dream opportunity for migrant group

In the meantime, their immigration status was taken up by the UFCW Canada national office who worked closely with NDP MP Jenny Kwan to secure an open work-permit for vulnerable migrant workers. This option for migrant victims of employer abuse was secured a few short years ago, following lengthy efforts by UFCW Canada in Ottawa to reform the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP). Since then, the union has helped hundreds of mistreated migrants to secure open work permits.