Immigration Minister Marc Miller told the Commons immigration committee that foreigners with expired permits are expected to leave Canada on their own, as nearly five million temporary permits are set to expire by the end of next year.“The vast majority leave,” said Miller. “In some cases, increasingly many I would concede, people decide to choose they are in a situation of irregularity.”Blacklock's Reporter says Conservative MP Tom Kmiec raised concerns about tracking the departures of permit holders. “Your department tabled documents with Parliament that showed 4.9 million visas are going to expire between September 2024 and December 2025,” said Kmiec. “How will we know how many of those actually wind up leaving?”Miller acknowledged the challenge of monitoring compliance, saying, “We will have to monitor that carefully. There are many measures within our department to monitor these things.”When pressed on how the government ensures compliance, Miller explained, “We work with our partners, including the Canada Border Services Agency, to investigate and prosecute those who violate immigration laws.”Kmiec specifically questioned the fate of the 766,000 foreign students with permits set to expire. “How many of them will actually leave?” he asked.Miller responded that some students would remain in Canada legally through renewals or postgraduate work permits. “At the end of this year, 2024, how many international students do you expect to leave, and how many have left so far when their study permits expired?” asked Kmiec. Miller admitted, “I don’t have that number,” and could not confirm whether the data would be provided to the committee.The Department of Immigration counted over 1 million foreign students in Canada as of last May, with a growing number making asylum claims. “Whether you like it or not, they are entitled to due process in this country,” Miller emphasized.Cabinet has acknowledged challenges with enforcement, estimating in 2023 that more than half of foreigners ordered to leave Canada remain in the country. A briefing note from April 2024 suggested the number of undocumented individuals in Canada could be as high as 500,000.“There are no accurate figures representing the number or composition of undocumented immigrants residing in Canada,” stated the briefing note, Undocumented Migrants. The estimate includes illegal immigrants and others who have exhausted their appeals. “An undocumented migrant is an individual who has no authorization to reside or work in Canada,” it said.
