Ottawa has lost track of about 33,000 immigrants who are currently seeking to evade an order to leave the country, the president of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) told a parliamentary committee Tuesday.
Testifying before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, Erin O’Gorman explained that the number of individuals in what the CBSA calls the “wanted inventory” has remained relatively stable over the past five years, but that removals of immigrants considered inadmissible on security grounds has doubled in the same period.
“We’re constantly scooping water out of that bathtub,” Aaron McCrorie, VP of Intelligence and Enforcement at the CBSA, added. “But the bathtub is filling up as well.”
Data released by the agency last month shows that as of Oct. 31, 2025 the CBSA was working to remove about 1,500 individuals linked to criminal activity, from a total of nearly 30,000 people.
Aisling Bondy, who serves as the president of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, said that for non-citizens convicted of a crime, deportations are routine, but there is sometimes a “false perception” that the system is more lenient with them.
“The system is harsher, because unlike citizens, they do face this risk of deportation. Citizens do not,” she tells OMNI News. “And removals routinely happen. People are routinely deported.”
Zero tolerance: Three in 10 are in favour of immediate deportation for convicted non-citizens
According to a recent Leger poll conducted exclusively for OMNI News, a majority of newcomers say that non-citizens convicted of a crime should be deported, with 28 per cent calling for a zero-tolerance policy, and a similar share believing decisions should be made on a case-by-case basis.
Bondy notes that non-citizens convicted of a crime can appeal a removal order only in limited circumstances, but “there is no guarantee that the appeal will be granted, and if it is, it comes with strict terms and conditions.”
“I sometimes see people who’ve been here for decades …. and are now facing the possibility of removal over a conviction,” she added.
Canada deported nearly 19,000 people up to Oct. 31, 2025
Bondy believes that the impression that immigrants convicted of a crime receive special treatment is sometimes coupled with an assumption that non-citizens break the law at a higher rate.
The OMNI-Leger poll found that 82 percent of newcomers think Ottawa should do more to prevent conflicts from being brought into Canada through immigration, with support for stronger measures highest among respondents who are older, White, and have been in the country for longer.
CBSA officials told MPs at committee today that over the past 12 months, 845 individuals were removed for serious inadmissibility, and the agency is on track to deport 20,000 people by March 2026.
The poll was completed between Oct. 2 and Oct. 15, 2025, among 1,510 respondents who were all born outside Canada, using Leger’s online panel. No margin of error can be associated with it.
This story is part of a series from OMNI News with data being released throughout the month.
