Immigration Minister Marc Miller says the Canadian government will work with the incoming Trump administration as it implements measures to combat illegal immigration, and that he wants anyone coming to Canada to do so legally in a “regular pathway.”
Miller added that any claims that Donald Trump’s plans could impact Canada were “speculation.”
Trump has promised to implement the “largest deportation operation in American history” when he takes office in January. There are an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States, making up about 3 percent of the population.
Trump has tapped former Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Tom Homan to be his border czar and coordinate the deportation operation. Homan has said that families could be “deported together” and that worksite immigration enforcement operations would be “necessary.”
During a press conference on Nov. 6, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland sought to assure Canadians that the government has control over the 9,000-kilometre border.
“We absolutely recognize the importance of border security and of controlling your own border, of controlling who comes into Canada and who doesn’t, and we will do that,” she said.
Illegal crossings along the Canada-U.S. border have skyrocketed over the last several years, with border officials apprehending 189,401 illegal immigrants in 2023, compared to 27,180 in 2021. Canada’s population grew by almost four million people between 2020 and 2024 amid record-high immigration.
In October, the federal government announced a reduction in the number of permanent residents to be admitted into Canada over the next three years, with the targets falling from 500,000 new permanent residents in each of the next two years to 395,000 in 2025 and 380,000 in 2026. The number would drop further in 2027 to 365,000.In January, Miller announced a two-year intake cap on the number of international student permit applications, bringing the number down from the approximately 560,000 student visas issued in 2023 to roughly 360,000 approved study permits for 2024. A total of 200,000 fewer international students were let into Canada this fall compared to last year, according to the immigration department.