Marc Miller pronounces additional measures to boost border safety…

In a press convention as we speak, Canadian Minister of Immigration Marc Miller alongside Minister of Public Security David McGuinty introduced additional measures geared toward enhancing border safety and integrity.

Minister Miller supplied info on the results of recent customer visa insurance policies, and measures concentrating on abuse in Canada’s asylum system, and mentioned the potential for forthcoming adjustments to the worldwide pupil program.

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New rules and fines for fraudulent actors

As a part of new efforts to strengthen Canada’s border Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) will introduce harsher fines and penalties for fraudulent immigration consultants and representatives who assist newcomers in abusing Canada’s asylum program.

Below these new rules, IRCC and the Faculty of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants will have the ability to impose financial fines of as much as $1.5 million , in addition to publicly show the names of unhealthy actors on IRCC web sites, in a “naming and shaming” marketing campaign.

Extension of information-sharing agreements

With a view to higher safe the border and cease instances of fraud, Miller additionally introduced that Canada’s information-sharing settlement with the US could be prolonged.

Whereas the federal government has processes for sharing related information with overseas nations, the scope of those processes will likely be prolonged to incorporate everlasting residents in each Canada and the US.

“This info is admittedly mission crucial to having a protected border,” Miller said on the joint press convention. “By granting this extension, each international locations are higher outfitted to hurry purposes and make knowledgeable migration selections, in addition to forestall fraud.”

Miller has not shared particulars on how this course of will likely be carried out however has said that there will likely be safeguards to guard individuals’s privateness.

Heightened scrutiny on customer visas

Minister Miller mentioned there was heightened scrutiny on customer visa purposes in Canada.

“We’ve put in place new measures to detect fraud and, since then, we’ve made and seen a significant discount within the variety of asylum claims from individuals who have been issued non permanent resident visas.”

In line with Miller, this heightened scrutiny has led to an 89% total discount in overseas nationals crossing illegally into the US, since June 2024.

The Minister additional said that visa refusals are up by greater than 61% for international locations the place Canada noticed the best ranges of abuse (Miller didn’t specify the relative time interval for this share).

Attainable forthcoming to the worldwide pupil program

In response to a query concerning extra reforms to Canada’s worldwide pupil program, Minister Miller said that he had no forthcoming plans for main adjustments, although he didn’t rule out the potential for extra adjustments solely: “…they [institutions and actors in the international student space] mustn’t anticipate giant main adjustments as we have a look at the affect of the already main adjustments that we have made during the last yr…”

“Is there extra work to do? And are there changes? I’d suppose definitely there are a number of that I will likely be over the course of the following few months to ensure that the system has much more integrity than it presently has. So I do not exclude it….”

Miller additionally said that the immigration division has seen a 91% drop in unlawful US crossings by these holding Canadian research permits, since implementing additional measures to confirm college students’ letters of acceptance at a Designated Studying Establishment (DLI).

This announcement comes because the IRCC tightens border safety measures together with ending the apply of flagpoling in December.

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