Take Back Control of Immigration
Ottawa, ON – Today, the Hon. Michelle Rempel Garner, Conservative Shadow Minister for Immigration, released the following statement regarding a Conservative motion moved at Immigration committee, calling for emergency action on student visa fraud:
“Earlier this week, the Auditor General’s (AG) report on International Student Program Reforms highlighted just some of the many of the problems with Canada’s immigration system. In subsequent committee testimony, Minister Diab claimed that she only had the resources to investigate a tiny handful of the 153,000 suspected student visa fraud cases in the AG’s report.
“Such a state of affairs is utterly unacceptable. At a time when Canadian youth are desperate for jobs and support for immigration is at generational lows, it is past time for the government to act.
“That’s why yesterday, Conservatives moved a motion at Immigration committee, calling for timely and common-sense actions, including:
- Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to investigate all alleged cases of international student permit fraud or non-compliance, and provide monthly reports to the committee, starting on May 15, on these investigations and the resources dedicated to them;
- IRCC to provide a further report detailing how many of the 153,324 individuals the AG said were suspected of international student permit fraud and non-compliance were given further visas (or otherwise remain in Canada);
- IRCC to provide the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) with the identities of the 110 asylum seekers mentioned in the AG’s report who entered Canada using fraudulent documents as part of their application for a study permit, so that this information can be added to their asylum claim files; and
- The Liberals ensure that all those who enter Canada on a fraudulent basis are not issued further visas.
“Importantly, we also called for Ministers Diab, Fraser and Miller to appear before the Immigration committee, along with IRCC and IRB officials, to shed further light on how our student visa debacle got to where it is.
“If the Liberals won’t decisively act in the best interests of Canadians, then Conservatives will. Canadians deserve transparency, fairness and accountability in their immigration system, and we are prepared to fight for that.”