Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this issue. During a media interview this past weekend, I created unnecessary confusion by mistakenly suggesting that the majority of asylum claimants had left. My intention was to explain how people who were deemed ineligible after exhausting all due process were in fact removed. Upon becoming aware of the confusion that I had created, I took immediate steps to clarify my remarks and to apologize.
As part of our government's ongoing commitment to openness and transparency, we post information related to irregular migration online, and all statistics related to asylum claims, interceptions and processes are publicly available.