Thread: Illegal Immigrants Chase False Hope to Canada

Illegal Immigrants Chase False Hope to Canada
September 21, 2007
By MONICA DAVEY and ABBY GOODNOUGH
WINDSOR, Ontario, Sept. 20 — Fleeing stepped-up sweeps by the American authorities, illegal immigrants to the United States, mostly Mexican, are arriving in growing numbers at the foot of the bridge in this Canadian border town seeking refugee status.
Still more immigrants, mostly Mexicans living illegally in Florida, have begun trying to make their way past America’s northern border at other locations, the majority of them flying into the airport in Toronto, Canadian officials said Thursday.
The arrivals here began suddenly three weeks ago, just a family or two at first, fueled by the notion — largely unfounded, the authorities here say — that Canada would grant them asylum.
The journey, some of the immigrants said, was first suggested by an organization in Naples, Fla., which charged a fee for assisting with the paperwork. Now the idea has spread on the Internet and through social networks.
By Thursday, at least 200 people had turned up here, across the border from Detroit, with as much of their lives as they could shove into suitcases, boxes and garbage bags in their cars. Thousands more, refugee advocates and Canadian officials say, may be on their way.
Advocates for immigrants issued urgent warnings to Mexicans pondering similar journeys, and expressed fury at groups that were encouraging them. In truth, refugee status for Mexican citizens is relatively unusual in Canada. Only 28 percent of such claims by Mexicans were approved in Canada last year, compared with 47 percent of claims from all nationalities.
“It’s an outrage that money is being taken to provide false information and dangerous information to these people,â€

If I wasn't an Indian (Mohawk) with rights to live in either the US or Canada, I would find this hilarious. BUT I know what a soft touch Canadians can be... I hate to see this happening on one hand but like seeing them leave the US. I only hope they get deported and REPORTED.

" the majority of them flying into the airport in Toronto, Canadian officials said Thursday."

How are ILLEGALS GETTING ON PLANES?????????

Canada is wooing Mexican immigrants
Chris Hawley
Republic Mexico City Bureau
May. 3, 2005 12:00 AM
MEXICO CITY - As the United States fortifies its border with Mexico, Canadian companies are reaching out to immigrants who are frustrated by U.S. restrictions and tempted by dreams of a better life in Canada.
The Canadian government has been relaxing its immigration rules in an effort to attract students and skilled workers from all over the world. That, and the push by companies promising jobs and visas, is attracting Mexican professionals turned off by the Minuteman Project, new border walls, tougher U.S. entry requirements and laws like Proposition 200 in Arizona.

"Live in Canada!" says a Mexico City newspaper ad placed by a Canadian labor recruiter, as a photo of the Toronto skyline beckons. "Voted the No. 1 country in the world for living four years in a row," an immigration counseling company boasts on its Web site.

"Canada has its arms open to immigrants, and the United States has its arms closed. It's as simple as that," accountant Marcos RamÃ*rez Posadas said as he stood in line with other visa applicants outside the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City.

The reason, immigration experts say, is that Canada needs more people.

"Our population is shrinking and getting older," said David Rosenblatt, a Canadian immigration lawyer whose firm advertises in Mexico. "Canada, in order to survive and grow, needs to get more skilled workers."

Mexicans are eager to fill the need. Last week, the Canadian Embassy's switchboard was swamped after local television aired a commercial from an immigration law firm about moving to Canada, embassy spokesman Luis Archundia said. None of the recent ads has been placed by the Canadian government itself, he said.

'They have jobs'

"I heard on TV that they have jobs up there," Edgar Solis Peña, a 30-year-old warehouse worker, said as he waited outside the embassy. "It's so hard to even get a hearing at the United States Embassy, so I decided to come here."

The siren song is echoing in the United States, too.

"Come to Canada to work - legally!" says a sign in Spanish recently posted by an immigration consultant near a site frequented by undocumented workers in Mesa, Ariz.

A call to the phone number on the sign yielded a recording that said the voice mailbox overflowed with messages.

Courting immigrants
Mexicans can enter Canada just by showing a passport, much easier than the long, expensive process of getting U.S. visas. Canada also has a widely praised farmworker program and is aggressively courting foreign students.

The country also has an easy-to-follow process for getting work permits that assigns points based on certain skills. The U.S. system is more subjective, with consular officials wielding the power to approve or reject applications without explanation.

Canada's low birth rate, about 1.61 children per couple, means the country needs immigrants to maintain its population of 33 million, Rosenblatt said. The United States is holding steady at 2.08 children per couple.

On April 19, Canada said it would spend $58 million to speed citizenship applications and vowed to triple citizenship approvals for parents and grandparents of immigrants. While they're waiting for citizenship, those people will get 5-year, multiple-entry visas to visit their children in Canada.

Citizenship applicants older than 55 will be exempt from language and Canadian knowledge tests, down from age 60, Immigration Minister Joe Volpe said.

Work rules for foreign college students also will be relaxed, he said. They'll be able to hold jobs off campus, and those who move to smaller cities will be able to work in Canada for two years after graduating , instead of one.

"Canada's immigration system is a model for the world," Volpe said in a written statement announcing the relaxed rules. "(The changes) allow us to maintain and enhance our position."

Rising numbers
That kind of welcome is drawing Mexicans by the thousands.

The number of legal, temporary workers in Canada from Mexico rose 68 percent, to 22,344 from 13,261, from 1998 to 2003, the latest year for which statistics are available. By comparison, there were 110,075 legal, temporary workers admitted to the United States from Mexico in 1998, and 130, 327 in 2003, an 18 percent rise.

"Overall, it's been a really dramatic rise in Canada," said Richard Mueller, an economist at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, who just completed a study of Mexican immigrants.

But the true immigration rate could be much higher.

Thousands of Mexicans get into the country just by flashing a passport. Many probably just disappear and work illegally, immigration experts said.

"I think there are a lot of those, but Canada doesn't want to talk about it," said Luin Goldring, a sociology professor and immigration expert at York University in Toronto.

One clue comes from the number of Mexicans applying for "refugee status," which jumped 89 percent from 2000 to 2003 as the United States began fortifying its border.

Refugee claimants

By 2003, peaceful Mexico was Canada's third-biggest source of refugee claimants, right up there with countries like Pakistan, which is plagued by religious violence, and Colombia, devastated by decades of civil war.

"Mexican refugee claims were negligible three or four years ago. Now you're getting 100 a month in Ontario alone," said Sergio Karas, an immigration lawyer in Toronto. Those claims can drag on for years until they are finally turned down, he said.

Refugee claims aren't necessarily a barometer of illegal immigration. But Costa Rica, another tranquil country whose citizens did not need visas to visit Canada, ranked No. 4 among refugee claimants in 2003, outpacing places like China and strife-torn Sri Lanka.

In May 2004, Canada started requiring visas for Costa Ricans, saying many were staying and becoming undocumented immigrants.

Better living

Family ties and easier entry aren't the only reasons Mexicans choose Canada over the United States. Many visa applicants said they were attracted by Canada's open spaces and lower crime rate.

"I have family in Los Angeles and I've visited them there, but I don't like the lifestyle that Mexicans live up there," said Guillermo Rivas Zaldibar, 38 .

"A lot of those people are not very educated. It's not exactly the best people we're sending up there."
Others said they simply don't like Americans.

"I find them very egotistical," said RamÃ*rez, an accountant for an oil-drilling firm. "There are a lot of historical problems between our countries. Canadians are much nicer; they appreciate other cultures."

Minuteman Project

For Victor Pérez Muciño, 33, a municipal worker in the town of Huixquilucan, recent news coverage of the Minuteman Project, a civilian patrol on the Arizona-Mexico border, was the deciding factor.

"We're always hearing about what they're doing to our fellow citizens . . . all these things with vigilantes, migrant hunters," he said. "Who wants to live with that?"
Reach the reporter at chris.hawley@arizonarepublic.com.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... ada03.html


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Mexicans head north for a better life. Way north.

By Danna Harman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

MEXICO CITY –
Born, educated, and married in Mexico City, this young, upper-middle class couple turned to one another one day and said, "Let's leave."
"I could not picture the future or having kids in Mexico," says Maria Carral, a graphic designer. "We were both really tired of the insecurity, the traffic, the economic ups and downs.... We were ready to move on to a better life.

Like so many Mexicans, Maria and her husband chose to move north - but in their case, that meant Canada, not the United States.

For a small but growing number of Mexicans the promised land of "El Norte" means life above the 49th parallel. And while the US is fortifying its borders and tightening entry requirements, Canada is putting out the welcome mat.

"Canada has awakened to Mexico and vice versa," says Mendel Green, an immigration lawyer in Canada. "It's a fit."

To date, the number of Mexicans going to the far north is only a trickle compared with the flood still heading to the US each year. In 1995, just 482 Mexicans became permanent residents of Canada, according to the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration (CIC). By 2004, that number had more than tripled, to 1,648. (By comparison, the US gave 173,664 immigrant visas to Mexicans in 2004.)

"Canada needs immigrants," explains Canada's ambassador to Mexico, Gaëtan Lavertu, flatly. Canada's vast land, small population (32 million), and low birthrate (about 1.61 children per couple), combined with its strong economic growth (the fastest of all the G-8 countries in the past 10 years) explains this attitude. "We have always looked at immigration as a way to bring in new talent and faces. And now the dynamism of our economy requires it," says the ambassador.

It all started with NAFTA

This emerging migratory shift began with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) a decade ago, and has gathered steam in the the past five years says Mr. Green, whose firm has been in operation for 45 years.

Carral and her husband, Andreas Anhalt, a chef, are part of this group of Mexicans who are looking at Canada in a new light. "When I was little, we thought Canada was for camping. If you wanted to send your kid to summer camp, Canada was the best," says Carral. "Now we are smarter."

"Word is getting out that Canada is a great place," says David Rosenblatt, another Canadian immigration lawyer whose firm runs weekend information seminars in Mexico that are attracting more than 1,000 people a night.

"We need skilled workers, but also blue collar - carpenters, roofers, welders. You name it," says Mr. Rosenblatt.

Green agrees. "We are bringing in senior IT [Information Technology] people and we're bringing in tool and die makers. Mexico produces everything we need. "

According to the Canadian Embassy in Mexico, there are between 40,000 and 50,000 Mexican-born Canadians living legally and permanently in Canada today, while 10,000 come each year to study, and some 200,000 visit every year as tourists.

The biggest growth, however, has been in the number of Mexican temporary workers going to Canada. In 1995, 5,383 Mexicans received temporary visas, the majority under a special seasonal agricultural workers program. By 2004 the number was 11,340 - making it the second largest group of temporary workers in Canada, after US citizens.

But some critics say Canada is being naive and creating a pipeline for illegal immigrants who will stay. The US border patrol, for example, estimates that more than half a million Mexicans enter the US illegally every year.

But Rosenblatt responds that very few Mexicans overstay their visas or come illegally to Canada. "They go back home to their families with a lot of money in their pockets, secure that they can easily return the next year if they please," he says.

Officials at the Mexican Ministry of Labor, which handles the paperwork for this force, agree, saying that 80 percent of the temporary workers come home, get rehired, and return to Canada the following year.

By the end of 2005, Canada expects to have invited in close to 240,000 new foreign immigrants, temporary workers, and refugees from around the world (as a percentage of its population, that is three times what the US currently allows in legally). The number of Mexican immigrants is still relatively low compared with the 36,411 Chinese and 25,569 Indians who moved to Canada last year. But, stresses Ambassador Lavertu, a trend is noticeable.

While most immigrants go to Canada's biggest cities - Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa - some of the provinces are recruiting, too. Thinly populated Manitoba, for example, is bringing in about 4,000 newcomers a year under a program that lets it nominate prospective immigrants even when they don't meet standard federal criteria.

"NAFTA brought us closer. Bilateral trade has tripled, Canadian firms have come to Mexico, education and tourism ties have been tightened ... and now immigration is rising," says Lavertu. "After 1994 [when NAFTA went into effect] we woke up to the Americas, especially to Mexico," he says. "And I think Mexico started looking over at us then, too."

In an effort to encourage immigration from Mexico and elsewhere, the Canadian government has been relaxing and simplifying its immigration rules over the past few years. Mexican tourists enter Canada just by showing a passport, and the process of applying for either permanent or worker status is far easier and usually cheaper than the often subjective process of getting a US visa.

US tourist visa: source of frustration

"Just getting a hearing [for a visa] at the US embassy is a feat," says Javiar Gomez, a Mexico City house painter who waited four months to hear whether or not he could get a tourist visa to visit his brother in Chicago last year. He didn't get the visa. "You have to pay [a nonrefundable $100 fee] before knowing if you will be accepted or not. Its infuriating," he says.

Temporary workers who want to go to Canada fill out one form. There's no charge. The same application to the US, according the US Embassy website requires, among other things:

• "A copy of the I-129 petition and the original approved I-797 petition. "

• "A BANAMEX receipt for the 1,150 pesos (adjusted according to exchange rate) application fee. There can be additional fees for individuals obtaining work visas."

• "Supplementary application form if applicant is male between the ages of 16 and 45."

Any Mexican can apply for an immigrant visa to Canada. But the US rules say that only Mexicans who have family or a sponsoring employer can apply for the same visa.

Three months ago, Carral and Anhalt paid an immigration lawyer about $860 to handle all the paperwork for both of them. They threw a disco farewell party, kissed their parents goodbye, and packed up for Toronto.

"The climate is terrible," admits Carral, reached by phone in Canada. "Our furniture has not yet arrived," adds Anhalt, who is working night shifts in an Italian trattoria and planning to open his own Mexican restaurant someday.

"But we are happy," says Carral. This week she starts a new job.

"It's not like a 'wow' job," she allows. "But it is a beginning, and it's a new home where we feel OK."http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1028/p01s04-woam.html

THINGS CHANGED RATHER QUICKLY.

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Mexicans Find a Rough Welcome Mat in Canada

Alan Freeman, Globe and Mail (Toronto), August 6, 2007

http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/20 ... find_a.php


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Canada offers illegal immigrants no easy asylum


Illegal immigrants hear that they will be welcomed. Instead, they may be deported.

By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN, Times Staff Writer
Published September 30, 2007

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/09/30/World ... egal.shtml

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Originally Posted by CitizenJustice

" the majority of them flying into the airport in Toronto, Canadian officials said Thursday."

How are ILLEGALS GETTING ON PLANES?????????

Probably with our tax dollars. I just hope Canadians arer reading about the daily demise of America and its citizens and heed the warning. As soon as they get there put on a plane with a one way ticket to Messyhole.

Originally Posted by WhatMattersMost

Originally Posted by CitizenJustice

" the majority of them flying into the airport in Toronto, Canadian officials said Thursday."

How are ILLEGALS GETTING ON PLANES?????????

Probably with our tax dollars. I just hope Canadians arer reading about the daily demise of America and its citizens and heed the warning. As soon as they get there put on a plane with a one way ticket to Messyhole.

I hope they (the Canadians) don't send them back to America. I dare those Canadians be so racist, how could they not allow those poor "hard working" people in they just want the Canadian dream

dyehard39 wrote:

Illegal immigrants hear that they will be welcomed. Instead, they may be deported.

Where will they be deported back to--country of origin or U.S.? Hope it's not the U.S.

Right of asylum (or political asylum) is an ancient judicial notion, under which a person persecuted for political opinions or religious beliefs in his or her country may be protected by another sovereign authority, a foreign country, or Church sanctuaries (as in medieval times).

Illegal immigrants from U.S. cannot seek political asylum in Canada by claiming U.S. persecution because the U.S. is not his or her county. They would have to seek political asylum from their native country where they are not being persecuted for political nor religious beliefs.

President Bush should have included Mexico in his Axis of Evil--Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

Does Mexico have future plans to squeeze the U.S. between 2 Mexican populated countries--Mexico and Canada?

Mexico is listening to American's calls for closing the Mexican/U.S. border and making contigency plans for when that happens. The U.S./Mexican border extends 1,951 miles. The 5,522 mile long U.S./Canadian border is the longest in the world. When the southern border is secured, illegals, gun runners and drug smugglers will be in place to enter the U.S. at will through our northern border.

http://immigration.about.com/od/usborde ... ers101.htm

The U.S. border with Mexico extends 1,951 miles: In the southern U.S., our border with Mexico extends over 1,951 miles.
In the west, it stretches from San Diego, California to Tijuana, Baja California; in the east, between Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Tamaulipas.

From the El Paso crossing in Texas to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, in the east, the border runs along the Rio Grande (RÃ*o Bravo del Norte) down to the Gulf of Mexico. Westward, toward the Pacific Ocean, it runs through the Chihuahuan and Sonoran Deserts, Colorado River Delta and the northern tip of the Baja Peninsula.

Border terrain is wide and varied, from sprawling urban hubs to foreboding deserts.

At 5,522 miles, the U.S. border with Canada is the longest in the world: At 5,522 miles, the U.S. border with Canada is the longest in the world. Officially known as "the International Boundary," it includes small boundaries on the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic coasts as well as the Great Lakes. Canada shares 1,539 miles of that with Alaska.
Portions of the International Boundary run through mountainous terrain and heavily forested areas, while other sections cross farms, prairies, the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence River. There are about 1,000 officers manning the U.S. border with Canada.

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
Abraham Lincoln [/quote]

duplicate post - Thank you for posting

http://www.alipac.us/ftopicp-480667-mon ... ugh#480667

Psalm 91