Create a dedicated CBSA Removals Action Team of 1,500 officers. Clear 50% of the outstanding warrant backlog within 24 months. Document fraud means permanent inadmissibility. Asylum claims decided within 6 months. Criminal penalties for institutions that facilitate immigration fraud.
Canada has more than 33,000 outstanding removal warrants. Over 10,000 of those warrants have been sitting active for more than a year. In 2025 the CBSA removed a record 18,969 people — and still could not keep up with the backlog. The system is not broken because the laws are wrong. It is broken because enforcement is chronically under-resourced and politically deprioritised.
The extortion enforcement numbers illustrate the problem starkly. CBSA opened 372 immigration investigations linked to extortion networks in 2025. They managed to enforce 35 removal orders. That is not enforcement — it is administration. Organised criminal networks operating in Canada under immigration status are a direct threat to the communities they prey on, and the current enforcement capacity is not equal to the task.
The international student fraud crisis that peaked between 2021 and 2024 was real and well-documented. Fake acceptance letters from Canadian colleges were used by thousands of foreign nationals to obtain study permits with no intention of studying. Fraudulent immigration consultants charged vulnerable newcomers thousands of dollars for fake documentation. IRCC made acceptance letter verification mandatory in 2024 specifically because of this. But there are still no criminal penalties for the institutions and individuals who facilitated the fraud. That must change.
None of this is about targeting specific nationalities or communities. It is about the basic principle that a rules-based immigration system only works if the rules are enforced. When they are not — when removal orders sit unexecuted for years, when fraud has no consequences, when asylum backlogs stretch to a decade — the system loses legitimacy with both Canadians and with the genuine immigrants who followed the rules to get here.
The data on what Canada is currently doing — and what we would change.
Sources: CBSA Removals Program Statistics 2025; CBSA 2024-25 Departmental Results Report; Canadian Press, December 2025; IRCC 2025 Annual Report to Parliament on Immigration.
Create the CBSA Removals Action Team. A dedicated inland enforcement and fugitive apprehension unit of 1,000 to 1,500 officers — built on the existing approximately 530 inland enforcement officers — with a targeted mandate focused exclusively on the 33,000+ outstanding warrant inventory, prioritising serious criminality, national security risks, organised crime, and long-outstanding cases. The team would have mobile units, real-time intelligence sharing with the RCMP and local police, joint task forces, and dedicated logistics for escorted removals. Performance tied to clear KPIs: clear 50% of the wanted backlog within 24 months while maintaining the 20,000+ annual removal target.
Expanded enforcement authorities for high-risk cases. We would expand warrantless arrest powers in specifically defined high-risk cases — national security threats, organised crime links, and cases where there is a documented risk to public safety — mirroring authorities already held by the RCMP in comparable circumstances.
Document fraud means permanent inadmissibility. Any foreign national found to have used fraudulent documents to obtain immigration status in Canada would be permanently inadmissible with no pathway to return. The current consequence — rejection and a multi-year bar — is insufficient deterrence.
Criminal penalties for institutions that facilitate fraud. Ghost immigration consultants and educational institutions that knowingly processed fraudulent documentation would face criminal prosecution, not just regulatory penalties. The profit motive for institutional fraud disappears when the consequence is criminal conviction rather than a fine.
Asylum claims decided within 6 months. The current average wait time for an asylum claim decision in Canada exceeds 21 months. We would fund the Immigration and Refugee Board to process all claims within 6 months and introduce automatic removal proceedings the day after a final negative decision.
Ring-fenced multi-year enforcement funding. Enforcement budgets are routinely raided to cover administrative costs elsewhere in the immigration system. We would legislate ring-fenced multi-year funding for the Removals Action Team so enforcement capacity cannot be quietly cut between elections.
Tripling inland enforcement capacity from approximately 530 to 1,500 officers would cost approximately $300 to $400 million annually — funded by redirecting administrative overhead within the IRCC and CBSA budgets and by the fiscal savings from faster asylum processing, which currently costs the federal government an estimated $50,000 per claimant per year in social assistance and housing support during the wait period.
~$300–400M annually for 1,500 RAT officers. Funded by redirecting IRCC/CBSA admin overhead and savings from faster asylum processing (~$50,000/claimant/year in current support costs).