The mandate for inland enforcement includes conducting lengthy and complex investigations of suspected war criminals, national security cases, and organized crime groups. The officers locate and remove foreign nationals who enter Canada illegally or individuals, including permanent residents, whose admissibility status changes after they have entered Canada.
This activity involves investigations in cooperation with other law enforcement agencies, which includes the RCMP and Canadian municipal police departments. Many of the people or individuals removed from the prairie region have been deemed inadmissible due to criminal activity committed in Canada or overseas. Some of those individuals have been or are currently members of various recognized organized crime groups, including, to name a few, the outlaw motorcycle gangs, Afrikan Mafia, MS-13, Clippers, Fresh Off the Boat, and Fresh Off the Boat Killers.
Enforcement related to organized crime is of great importance to our division and to CBSA. There is a specific section in IRPA that describes membership in an organized crime group as making one inadmissible to Canada. For your reference, this is section 37.
Section 37 refers to both permanent residents and foreign nationals who are inadmissible on the grounds of organized criminality:
(a) being a member of an organization that is believed on reasonable grounds to be or to have been engaged in activity that is part of a pattern of criminal activity planned and organized by a number of persons acting in concert in furtherance of the commission of an offence punishable under an Act of Parliament by way of indictment, or in furtherance of the commission of an offence outside Canada that, if committed in Canada, would constitute such an offence, or engaging in activity that is part of such a pattern; or (b) engaging, in the context of transnational crime, in activities such as people smuggling, trafficking in persons or money laundering.
CBSA helps to ensure that Canada's population is safe and secure from border-related risks.
I understand that the focus is not so much on the statistics or on our case-related information. I have some of those, if you are interested. Otherwise, I would be pleased to answer whatever questions you may have.