The B.C. government is urging Ottawa to expedite deportation hearings for extortion suspects after Global News reported they had all claimed refugee status.
“If you’re involved in criminal extortion and in Canada illegally, you should be removed. It’s that simple,” B.C. solicitor general Nina Krieger said on Thursday.
The mayor of Surrey, a city that has been heavily impacted by the extortion crisis, also said she was “appalled” by the development and demanded federal action.
They were responding to a Global News report revealing that all 14 extortion suspects sent for deportation hearings had filed asylum claims.
Efforts to deport them must now wait until their refugee claims have been heard by the Immigration and Refugee Board, according to the officials.
The hurdle to deportations comes as B.C. faces increasingly brazen India-based crime groups like the Lawrence Bishnoi gang that have been demanding large sums of money from predominantly Sikh Canadians.
To underscore their case, they threaten to kill their targets and then hire local foot soldiers who are often in Canada on student visas to shoot at their houses.
The scheme has become so rampant in parts of B.C. and Ontario that police and immigration officers have formed extortion task forces.
But while the Canada Border Services Agency has opened 96 investigations as a result of the B.C. Extortion Task Forces, all 14 suspects sent for deportation hearings have claimed asylum.
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Community leaders at the front line of the extortion epidemic that has spread fears in the province’s South Asian community responded angrily.
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke wrote in a news release that residents of her city “deserve better than to see our legal and immigration systems abused.”
“The federal government must move to immediately fix Canada’s immigration and deportation laws to protect our communities. Guests in our country who break our laws need to be sent home.”
The Safe Surrey Coalition, led by mayoral candidate Doug McCallum, said the government must close the “gaping loopholes in our immigration system that let Indian extortion terrorists dodge deportation by filing bogus last minute refugee claims.”
“They are not refugees,” said McCallum, who served as mayor until 2022. “Their fake claims turn our immigration system into a protective shield for the Bishnoi terrorist syndicate.”
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree, whose portfolio includes the CBSA, has not yet responded to a request for comment.
In a post on X, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre wrote: “Charge them. Convict them. Deport them. No more loopholes. No more excuses.”
Meanwhile, each of the 14 suspects B.C. authorities sent to the IRB for a deportation hearing made a refugee claim, which experts said could delay their removals.
“I have previously raised this issue with the federal minister of public safety, stressing the need for faster decisions and stronger tools to prevent abuse of the refugee system,” the B.C. solicitor general, who is also public safety minister, said.
“We continue to urge Ottawa to expedite hearings when there are credible links to organized crime or violence. We all agree that if you are part of these criminal activities, you should be deported.”
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