Latest news with #Immigration
Toronto Star
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Toronto Star
Federal minister plans to hold consultations this summer on immigration intake
Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Lena Metlege Diab rises during Question Period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Thursday, June 5, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld ajw flag wire: true flag sponsored: false article_type: : sWebsitePrimaryPublication : publications/toronto_star bHasMigratedAvatar : false :
Toronto Sun
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
Federal minister plans to hold consultations this summer on immigration intake
Published Jun 27, 2025 • 1 minute read Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Lena Metlege Diab rises during Question Period on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Thursday, June 5, 2025. Photo by Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS OTTAWA — Immigration Minister Lena Diab says the federal government will consult this summer on its immigration levels plan and whether the student visa system is 'sustainable.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account In a recent interview with University Affairs, Diab says the annual consultations will reach out to the provinces, university administrators and students themselves. An Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada spokeswoman says the government expects schools to only accept students they can 'reasonably support' by providing housing and other services. Post-secondary institutions across the country are posting deficit budgets this year, laying off staff and cutting programs as international student enrolment drops. The government last year announced a cap on study permit applications and a gradual decrease in the number of student visas. Conservative immigration critic Michelle Rempel Garner says her party wants to see an 'immediate and massive' reduction in student visas due to high youth unemployment and the housing crisis. In May, Statistics Canada reported the unemployment rate among returning students had hit 20 per cent, a three per cent increase over the previous year. Toronto Raptors News Music Toronto Raptors Canada
CBS News
13 hours ago
- CBS News
Smugglers sentenced to decades in prison 3 years after 53 migrants found dead in back of truck in Texas
Two smugglers convicted of federal charges in connection with the deaths of 53 migrants found in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer in Texas in 2022 were sentenced to decades in prison on Friday. Felipe Orduna-Torres, 32, and Armando Gonzales-Ortega, 55, are to be the first of several defendants sentenced in the San Antonio tragedy, which remains the nation's deadliest human smuggling attempt across the U.S.-Mexico border. In March, a jury deliberated for only about an hour before convicting the men of being part of a human smuggling conspiracy that resulted in death and injury. Orduna-Torres, who prosecutors described as the leader of the smuggling operation, was given two life sentences and an additional 20 years on a third count to be served consecutively, according to CBS affiliate KENS. Gonzales-Ortega was sentenced to 87.5 years in prison. Prosecutors had described Gonzales-Ortega as Orduna-Torres' top assistant. Both men were also fined $250,000. The 64 immigrants inside the truck had come from Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico and had paid between $12,000 and $15,000 each to be smuggled into the United States, according to an indictment in the case. They had made it as far as the Texas border city of Laredo when they were placed into a tractor-trailer with broken air conditioning for a three-hour drive to San Antonio. As the temperature rose inside the trailer, those inside screamed and banged the walls of the trailer for help or tried to claw their way out, investigators said. Most eventually passed out. When the trailer was opened in San Antonio, 48 people were already dead. Another 16 were taken to hospitals, where five more died. The dead included six children and a pregnant woman. Only 11 people inside the vehicle survived. Body bags lie at the scene where a tractor trailer with multiple dead bodies was discovered, Monday, June 27, 2022, in San Antonio. Eric Gay / AP In a news briefing shortly after the incident, San Antonio police chief William McManus described the scene as "tragic beyond words." "I don't understand how anyone could be so callous as to allow it happen and run from the scene," McManus said. Orduna-Torres and Gonzales-Ortega were sentenced exactly three years after the tragedy. Investigators said the Orduna-Torres and Gonzales-Ortega worked with human smuggling operations in Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico, and shared routes, guides, stash houses, trucks and trailers. Orduna-Torres provided the address in Laredo where they would be picked up, and Gonzalez-Ortega met them there. Five other men previously pleaded guilty to felony charges in the smuggling case, including the truck driver Homero Zamorano Jr., who was found hiding near the trailer in some bushes. Zamorano faces up to life in prison when sentenced in December. The other defendants are scheduled to be sentenced later this year. The incident is the deadliest among tragedies that have claimed thousands of lives in recent decades as people attempt to cross the U.S. border from Mexico. Ten immigrants died in 2017 after they were trapped inside a truck parked at a Walmart store in San Antonio. In 2003, the bodies of 19 immigrants were found in a sweltering truck southeast of San Antonio.
HKFP
14 hours ago
- Politics
- HKFP
Canada confirms Hongkongers applying for permanent residence via ‘lifeboat' scheme can await results abroad
Canada's immigration office has confirmed that Hongkongers applying for permanent residence via a 'lifeboat' scheme created in response to Beijing's national security law may await the result of their application abroad. In response to HKFP's enquiries, a spokesperson for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) said in an email that applicants must be physically present when applying for the Hong Kong Pathway Programme, and when their application is approved. The spokesperson added: 'They do not have to remain in Canada while the application is being processed.' The applicants, however, must 'intend to live in Canada, in any province or territory other than the province of Quebec,' according to the IRCC website. Amid an exodus of Hong Kong residents often attributed to strict Covid-19 rules and the political developments since the protests and unrest in 2019, Canada has emerged as one of the most popular destinations for emigrants. But in recent months, there have been complaints from applicants saying the wait was longer than expected. When asked by HKFP whether Hongkongers may return to Hong Kong for an extended period -such as the estimated 17-month processing time – a spokesperson reiterated that applicants do not have to remain in Canada while their application is being processed. Lifeboat scheme As of April 30, close to 34,000 people have applied for permanent residence under the Hong Kong scheme, according to IRCC statistics. Over 12,200 applications have been processed and close to 11,750 have been approved. The lifeboat scheme offers two pathways. Stream A allows Hongkongers who recently graduated from Canadian post-secondary institutions to seek permanent residence. Stream B targets Hongkongers who have worked full-time in Canada for at least one year, or spent at least 1,560 hours in total undertaking part-time work. IRCC told HKFP that the processing time for PR applications submitted under the scheme was seventeen months as of the end of April. This includes both Stream A and Stream B, and indicates the time frame within which 80 per cent of complete applications were processed. In March, the IRCC announced there would be a years-long delay in processing permanent residence applications from Hongkongers. It said that as of October 31, 80 per cent of permanent residence applications were processed within a year. But a backlog has emerged due to a high volume of applications received, and most applications are expected to be processed after 2027. To accommodate the processing time, Canada offered a new work permit for Hongkongers in May last year to allow them to stay in the country while awaiting their application results. HKFP reported earlier this month that Hongkongers in Canada have taken to social media to express their confusion and frustration at the lack of updates on their permanent residence applications. Advocacy groups and politicians in Canada have called on the government to tackle the backlog and maintain its pledge to grant permanent residence to Hongkongers. The lifeboat scheme is set to expire on August 31, 2026, after which Canada will no longer accept applicants. June 30, next Monday, marks five years since Beijing inserted national security legislation directly into Hong Kong's mini-constitution in 2020 following a year of pro-democracy protests and unrest. It criminalised subversion, secession, collusion with foreign forces and terrorist acts – broadly defined to include disruption to transport and other infrastructure. The move gave police sweeping new powers and led to hundreds of arrests amid new legal precedents, while dozens of civil society groups disappeared. The authorities say it restored stability and peace to the city, rejecting criticism from trade partners, the UN and NGOs.
The Independent
15 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Trump claims ‘GIANT WIN' in ‘Birthright Citizenship Hoax' after massive Supreme Court ruling
President Donald Trump on Friday falsely claimed a Supreme Court decision narrowing the power of courts to issue nationwide injunctions was a 'giant win' in his administration's efforts to block children born in the United States to some immigrant parents from receiving citizenship despite the high court failing to green light the controversial and racially-charged executive order at issue in the case. Writing on Truth Social, Trump wrote that there'd been a 'GIANT WIN' for his administration by the court's right-wing majority, which stripped federal courts' authority to issue nationwide injunctions that have blocked key parts of his agenda. 'Even the Birthright Citizenship Hoax has been, indirectly, hit hard. It had to do with the babies of slaves (same year!), not the SCAMMING of our Immigration process,' he said, adding later that he'd be speaking about the news at 11:30 am. The 6-3 ruling, issued along partisan lines and written by Trump appointee Justice Amy Coney Barrett, states that federal judges who had issued such injunctions went too far in blocking his executive order that seeks to unilaterally redefine who gets to be a citizen by exceeding 'the equitable authority that Congress has given to the federal courts.' It did not address the question of whether Trump can who are born to certain immigrant parents.
