Liberal minister dodges questions on illegal immigrant numbers

Liberal Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab would not reveal the number of illegal immigrants in Canada. When asked whether they should be deported, she said the Liberals “expect” them to leave.

By Clayton DeMaine

Liberal Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab would not reveal the number of illegal immigrants in Canada. When asked whether they should be deported, she said the Liberals just “expect” them to leave.

The new immigration minister dodged several questions from Conservative MPs during a debate in the House of Commons.

Diab was asked how many students are in the country on fraudulent visas, how many people are in the country with expired visas, and how many of those have been deported. She evaded each question, failing to answer.

Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner grilled Diab, asking how many of the estimated half a million undocumented foreigners who were in Canada as of December have been deported. Diab responded that the number of people ordered to go is “taken way out of context.”

Rather than answer questions on illegal immigration, Diab deferred answering, saying the question should be directed at the public safety minister and the Canada Border Services Agency.

Rempel Garner noted that it is the immigration minister’s job to know how many people are in the country, legally and illegally, for her to accurately and responsibly set immigration targets.

Diab offered no plan to remove illegal immigrants, instead simply saying the Liberals “expect” them to leave.

“We have rules in this country, and we expect people to follow those rules,” Diab said.

Her approach echoed comments made by former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s immigration minister last November, who said that nearly five million immigrants whose visas were set to expire were expected to leave voluntarily.

Diab refused to answer how many of the nearly 1.3 million non-permanent residents who were expected to leave Canada or become permanent residents have left. Conservatives questioned how the minister could set immigration targets if she’s ignorant of the number of immigrants still in the country.

She stated that the number of non-permanent residents will be reduced to five per cent of the Canadian population by 2027. The reduction would mean the number of non-permanent residents would fall from 3,020,936 at the beginning of this year to around 2,069,819 by 2027.

Statistics Canada reported non-permanent residents made up 7.3 per cent of the total population in Canada as of January 1, 2025, a 10 per cent increase from the previous year. The immigrant population grew despite the Liberal government claiming to have reduced the number.

Diab said Canada has “met and exceeded” its target for the first quarter of 2025, though the number of non-permanent residents as a portion of the population decreased by 0.1 per cent compared with the beginning of October 1, 2024.

If the rate of reduction remained the same, Canada would only reduce its non-permanent resident population to about 6.7 per cent of the population by 2027, not to five per cent of the population.

“There have been 290,000 net new arrivals into Canada through the International Student Program. I don’t know where she comes up with numbers,” Diab said. “I would contextualize the numbers that she seems to read.”

Rempel Garner noted that the number of new housing starts is well below the government’s immigration number, and the number of Canadians without access to a family doctor far exceeds Liberal international student intakes.

Diab similarly deflected questions about whether terrorists who have gotten through the border were sufficiently vetted, and if she believes convicted immigrants should be deported, to Public Safety and CBSA.

“We have robust measures in the main estimates that deal with biometric collections with security,” Diab said. “But again, CBSA and CSIS are the ones that are in charge.”