Legal costs for illegals, refugees up 378%

Costs to provide free legal aid to illegal immigrants and asylum seekers have risen by nearly 400%, according to a Department of Justice memo. This follows complaints about immigration appeals overwhelming court dockets.

Funding for immigration and refugee legal aid services has been permanently increased from $11.5 million to $55 million, reported Blacklock’s. 

The December 2 memo Supplementary Estimates attributed the demand on legal aid service providers to record high immigration and asylum seekers.

Almost half of Canadians believe there are too many immigrants coming to the country. Public pressure prompted rollbacks from 485,000 permanent residents in 2023 to 365,000 by 2027.

Costs of free lawyering for illegal immigrants & refugee claimants are up 378% says @JusticeCanadaEn memo: "The dep't is aware of the unprecedented number."  https://t.co/5dxjJNZ3CQ @CitImmCanada@DM_JusticeCan @CarreauCarreau pic.twitter.com/3KcpV6Yteg

Applications in immigration cases, such as appeals of deportation orders, quadrupled from 5,572 in 2017 to 24,784 last year. Over the same period, the number of refugee claims rose from 43,250 to 272,440. 

The backlog of refugee claims at the Immigration and Refugee Board may limit the Court Administration Service’s ability to maintain operations.

“Ensuring Canadians have access to modern, safe and accessible Court facilities is integral to democracy, the rule of law and the Courts’ ability to maintain broad public confidence,” said the Departmental Results Report. 

Immigration appeals take years, and the backlog predates new permit cuts. Federal Court rulings against the immigration department almost doubled from 612 in 2017 to 1,101 in 2024.

The briefing note, Undocumented Migrants, estimates as many as 500,000 people reside in Canada without status, including illegal immigrants and others who exhausted their appeals.

Canadians also believe that illegals and refugee claimants receive too many benefits, with support for high immigration quotas falling rapidly. 

Taxpayers Ombudsman François Boileau recently wagged his finger at the Canada Revenue Agency for cancelling welfare cheques to illegal immigrants. 

Some 4.9 million people, whose visas are set to expire between September of 2024 and next December, are expected to voluntarily leave.

Then-Immigration Minister Marc Miller defended his government’s record on immigration, until recently. “Those folks are not welcome to Canada, if they do so in an irregular fashion,” he told reporters January 15.

“The vast majority leave,” Miller earlier testified before the immigration committee. “In some cases, increasingly many, I would concede, people decide to choose they are in a situation of irregularity.”

Alex Dhaliwal

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Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.

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