Costs for room and board of illegal immigrants who entered Canada through a Québec border crossing exceeded $127 million in the last five years, the highest amount reported to date.. Roxham Road crossingRoxham Road crossing .Expenses included hotel bookings from Surrey, BC, to St. John’s..The department of Immigration, in an Inquiry of Ministry tabled in the Commons, counted 105,315 illegal immigrants who crossed into Canada at Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, QC, since 2017. The total cost for hotel rooms, including meals, totalled $127.5 million, equivalent to $1,220 per person..The figures were revealed at the request of Conservative MP Lianne Rood (Lambton-Kent, ON), who asked, “What is the total amount the government has spent on hotels or motels for individuals who entered at Roxham Road?”. Migrant Hotel Costs $127 million .Expenses did not include RCMP costs in taking illegal immigrants into custody, additional private security or expenses for transporting them to hotels across the country..The inquiry said the immigration department booked rooms for Roxham Road border crossers in Surrey, BC, Winnipeg, Niagara Falls, Windsor, Ottawa and Cornwall, ON, Moncton, Fredericton, Halifax, St. John’s and numerous municipalities in Québec: Anjou, Brossard, Dorval, Laval, Longueil, Montréal, Point-Claire, Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, St-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Saint-Laurent..According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the cabinet to date has not detailed the total costs of border crossings at Lacolle that accounted for a large majority of illegal immigration in Canada..The Parliamentary Budget Office, in a 2018 report, estimated the total expenses of illegal immigration at up to $396 million a year, including expenses for Immigration and Refugee Board hearings..“As parliamentarians, we’ve been repeatedly stonewalled by the Liberals on what the total costs have been to date,” Conservative MP Larry Maguire (Brandon-Souris, MB) told reporters at the time..“We finally have those numbers and they are staggering.”. Getting luggage to cross at Roxham RoadGetting luggage to cross at Roxham Road .“Provincial budgets have been stretched thin and are now in the hundreds of millions of dollars to pay for social services,” said Maguire, who requested the Budget Office figures..“Cities have declared housing emergencies, homeless shelters are full and millions have been spent on hotel rooms.”.The Budget Office report Irregular Migration Across Canada’s Southern Border said federal costs alone totalled an average of $14,321 per illegal immigrant, rising to $33,700 depending on lengthy appeals to remain in the country..“Per migrant costs are projected to rise over time,” wrote analysts..“This is largely due to longer projected wait times for migrants to complete the entire asylum claim process. This is a result of projected inflows being greater than the capacity of federal organizations to process these claims.”
