Evidence of meeting #78 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was kingsley.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal
Thank you.
Madam Kwan, we'll go to you for six minutes. Please go ahead.
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the officials for coming to our committee today.
I have a group of questions, namely, what it means for those who have been found to be genuine, and what it means for those whose status is yet to be determined. I'm going to focus first on the students. I'm aware of at least 25 who have not yet had their case reviewed by the task force, but they're scheduled to be in the coming days, meaning after September 19, 2023.
Is that work yet to be completed? Is there an update of the findings to be presented about these students?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic, Family and Social Migration, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
Maybe I can go through the current numbers of where we are in the review—
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
No, I'm sorry, please don't go through the current numbers. I just want to know, for the people who have not yet had the opportunity to meet with the task force because no determination has been made, what happens to those cases? When can they expect to actually have that meeting with the task force to determine the outcome for their situation?
Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic, Family and Social Migration, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
In terms of the in-Canada population that has already been the subject of a removal order, everyone who is genuine has been contacted and issued a TRP.
In the cases that are still before the IRB, a number of those have been assessed, and notes have been left on the file so that the moment those come out of the IRB we will be able to intervene, either with a TRP for a genuine case or to ask them for more information if we didn't have enough information to consider that they were genuine.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I understand the categories of what you have put out. What I'm hearing—from my office being in touch with the people whose cases are being reviewed—is that some of them have been found to be genuine. I have a set of questions for them, but I'm not going to ask them here because I only have six minutes. Most importantly, the people are still waiting for the process to complete have not had a hearing, for example. Therefore, they have not had the chance to meet with the task force because they are still waiting for the hearing to occur. In the meantime their study permit's going to expire and their work permit's also going to expire quickly, so they may not be able to get through to getting that hearing and then having their case assessed by the task force. What happens to them? Right now they're stuck and they're no better off than they were in April. They're just stuck.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic, Family and Social Migration, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
In terms of the people who are still before the IRB, there is no risk of removal for them. The task force has been very clear that we intervene when the case has been heard and concluded at the IRB. At this point—
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I'm sorry, but I'm going to interrupt you. I understand that. My question, though, is about the fact their work permit's going to expire. One student's work permit has already expired, and you can imagine the difficulties they're in as a result of that. As they're waiting and waiting and waiting, what happens to them? They're not anywhere ahead from where they were in April.
Assistant Deputy Minister, Economic, Family and Social Migration, Department of Citizenship and Immigration
My understanding is that while they wait at the IRB their status remains—the validity of their status remains. That's why, once the IRB has made its decision, that's the point at which the task force would intervene.
Vice-President, Intelligence and Enforcement, Canada Border Services Agency
I would just add that for those individuals, we've made it very clear that we will not be.... In part because they haven't been to the IRB yet, we will work to schedule them. In some instances we do our own review: We make a decision that there's not enough evidence and it won't go to the IRB.
The numbers are very active, very dynamic and changing all the time, but we are very seized with addressing these issues as soon as they emerge from the IRB. It takes time for that to get scheduled, but I don't think people are stuck or in limbo prior to that. They're being protected.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
I'm aware of one student who's out of status due to their PGWP being refused, and they're still waiting on the CBSA to schedule the admissibility hearing. They have had no word. They said that they got a call from CBSA to confirm their information, but no hearing date. They're now in a very vulnerable position.
Vice-President, Intelligence and Enforcement, Canada Border Services Agency
I apologize, but I'm not familiar with this particular case. If you provide us details, I'd be more than happy to follow up to understand it. It may not even be part of our universe of students, part of the 285 we've been looking at. There are thousands of cases we're dealing with at any given time. We'd be happy to look into that in more detail subsequent to this meeting.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
This student was part of the group of people who came forward when this whole issue emerged, so I'm assuming they're part of the fraudulent case situation.
Mr. Chair, maybe I can do this: I have many questions—some of them are quite detailed—with respect to that, but we're pressed for time. I wonder if I could get authorization from the committee to submit written questions to the officials so that we can get clarity on this.
Many of the students we've been in touch with have no idea what's happened to them. Even those with “genuine” findings are still confused about what it means for them. Those who have not been processed are definitely confused and very worried with respect to that.
Some of them left voluntarily. The previous minister said those who left voluntarily would have an opportunity to prove their case. How are they going to do that? I haven't heard any information from the officials on how people can follow through on those cases, when they left voluntarily, without actually having gone through the process.
I would appreciate it, Mr. Chair, if you can advise me as to whether I could submit these questions to the officials in writing and receive the response. This could be shared with everybody, because these are questions that I think everybody has from people they're trying to work with.
Liberal
Conservative
