Under the criteria of appearance, Canadian immigration authorities denied entry to three Mexicans who were trying to enter the country as tourists, because "they didn't appear to have money and looked very poor".

The co-nationals suffered humiliation during more than 24 hours, one of the illegal aliens said. He said that authorities did strip searches and revisions of their belongings at least four times and then took them tothe Vancouver police headquarters where they were handcuffed, booked and detained.

Since December 2004, the U.S. has been designated by Canada as a safe third country for refugees. This means that most asylum seekers are ineligible to make a claim at the U.S.-Canada land border. If they attempt to do so, they are immediately returned to the U.S. where they may be detained. This has been the fate of many of the illegal aliens from Mexico living in the U.S given wrong information about Canada’s programs. To be eligible for asylum in Canada, illegal aliens must go to Canada directly from Mexico, they cannot claim refugee status at the U.S-Canada border.

Refugee claimants in Canada are eligible for basic social assistance and emergency health care. This is a matter of basic human dignity: no one wants to see people starving or bleeding to death on the streets. However, under current law, refugee claimants are entitled to only the bare minimum: they do not, for example, receive full health coverage or child tax benefits. Many claimants do not want to rely on social assistance and find work as soon as they can. They pay taxes, which go towards services for Canadians to which they themselves are not entitled.

There is no such category as “economic refugeeâ€