Canada working with US to deal with countries slow in accepting detainees

2/8/2025 6:10

Canada is working with the

United States to "deal with" countries reluctant to accept

deportees as both nations increase efforts to ship migrants back

to their home countries, according to a government document seen

by Reuters.

Since President Donald Trump began his second term in January,

the United States has cracked down on migrants in the country

illegally. But the U.S. has at times struggled to remove people

as quickly as it would like in part because of countries'

unwillingness to accept them.



As Canada has increased deportations, which reached a

decade-high last year, it has also run up against countries

reluctant to accept deportees. Canadian officials issued a

single-use travel document in June to a Somali man they wanted

to deport because Somalia would not provide him with travel

documents.



In a redacted message to an unknown recipient, cited in a

February 28 email, the director general of international affairs

for Canada's Immigration Department wrote, "Canada will also

continue working with the United States to deal with countries

recalcitrant on removals to better enable both Canada and the

United States to return foreign nationals to their home

countries."



The department referred questions about the message to the

Canada Border Services Agency, which declined to specify how

Canada and the U.S. were cooperating, when the cooperation

started, and whether the working relationship had changed this

year.



"Authorities in Canada and the United States face common

impediments to the removal of inadmissible persons, which can

include uncooperative foreign governments that refuse the return

of their nationals or to issue timely travel documents," an

agency spokesperson wrote in an email.



"While Canada and the United States do not have a formal

bilateral partnership that is specific to addressing this

challenge, the Canada Border Services Agency continues to work

regularly and closely with United States law enforcement

partners on matters of border security."



When the email was sent, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

was in his last days in office before being replaced in March by

Prime Minister Mark Carney. The Canada-U.S. relationship was

strained by Trump's threat of tariffs, which he said were partly

a response to migrants illegally entering the U.S. from Canada.



The spokesperson added the CBSA has committed to deporting

more people, from 18,000 in the last fiscal year to 20,000 in

each of the next two years.



Immigration has become a contentious topic in Canada as some

politicians blame migrants for a housing and cost-of-living

crisis.

The rise in Canada's deportations largely reflects an increased

focus on deporting failed refugee claimants. Refugee lawyers say

that could mean some people are sent back to countries where

they face danger while they try to contest their deportation.



The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately

respond to a request for comment.