Immigration Department Told to Provide Updated Costs of Failed Asylum Claims

A family, claiming to be from Columbia, is arrested by RCMP officers as they cross the border into Canada from the United States as asylum seekers near Champlain, New York, on April 18, 2018. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)

The federal parliamentary budget officer wants the Immigration Department to provide updated costs of failed asylum claims, which stood at up to $33,700 per person in 2018.

Budget Officer Yves Giroux wrote a letter to Immigration Minister Marc Miller on April 19, calling for his department to provide all documentation relating to the costs of the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB).

The letter, obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter, also asked for projected future costs relating to asylum claimants and for statistics on processed claims of those who arrived by air. The budget officer also wants to know the maximum number of appeals failed asylum seekers can file, along with the average number of appeals they filed.

The data is to be made available no later than May 3 so the office can provide the information to parliamentarians, the letter says.

A previous Budget Office report published in 2018 said the average cost per migrant was $14,321 and projected the cost would rise to $16,666 by 2019.

The report also said the cost per migrant could increase up to $33,738 if failed asylum seekers use up all appeals available to them and are ultimately removed from Canada.

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In total, the report said the cost to taxpayers of dealing directly with illegal migrants by all federal departments, from the RCMP and CSIS to the IRB and Canadian Border Services Agency (CSBA), was more than $340 million in 2018.

Canada has seen a surge in illegal entries and asylum claims since 2022. The IRB recorded 20,598 illegal entries in 2018. The number rose to 20,896 by the end of pandemic travel restrictions in 2022 and climbed to 31,475 entries in 2023.

The federal government has also spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars housing asylum seekers in various parts of the country, including more than $100 million for hotel rooms in Niagara Falls alone last year.

In February the House of Commons Citizenship and Immigration Committee asked Mr. Miller about ongoing issues with illegal immigrants entering the country.

“When it comes to asylum seekers, generally, we’re facing historic flows,” Mr. Miller told the committee, although he could not answer why in light of the rising number of Mexicans seeking asylum in Canada the government had not reimposed visa restrictions on Mexican nationals.

Just days after his testimony, Mr. Miller announced the federal government would be reinstating visa requirements for Mexican nationals.

Quebec Premier François Legault has also called on the federal government to slow the influx of illegal arrivals, writing to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in January that his province was at the “breaking point.”

“We are very close to the breaking point due to the excessive number of asylum seekers arriving in Quebec month after month,” Mr. Legault told the prime minister. ”The situation has become unsustainable.”