Canada’s Immigration System is Changing—Here’s What You Need to Know and Why It Matters to You

In Canada, the Department of Public Safety, in partnership with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), plays a key role in ensuring the safety of Canadians and supporting the nation’s economic growth. This is achieved through the secure and efficient management of Canada’s borders. These efforts include addressing cross-border crime, combating drug trafficking, and managing irregular migration. By targeting organized criminal groups and collaborating with law enforcement agencies across Canada, as well as federal departments, the government works to maintain border integrity. Additionally, ongoing strategic and operational discussions between Canada and the United States further strengthen border security and policy coordination.

The Canadian Border Plan: Security, Safety, and Efficiency

Canada is stepping up its efforts to strengthen border security and improve the immigration system, prioritizing community safety across the country. To make this happen, the government is investing $1.3 billion in boosting security personnel, deploying cutting-edge technology, and enhancing collaboration between agencies.

This investment is centered around five key areas, expanding on current initiatives:

Cracking Down on the Fentanyl Trade – Strengthening detection and enforcement to stop the illegal flow of fentanyl and other dangerous substances.

Supporting Law Enforcement – Equipping officers with advanced tools and resources to enhance border security operations.

Improving Coordination – Enhancing collaboration between agencies for more effective border management.

Strengthening Information Sharing – Expanding data exchange to quickly identify and respond to security threats.

Streamlining Border Processes – Reducing unnecessary delays to improve efficiency while focusing on high-priority risks.

With this investment, Canada is reinforcing its commitment to keeping borders secure, protecting communities, and ensuring a safer, more efficient immigration system.

Fentanyl Trade: Detection and Disruption

The Government of Canada is taking stronger action to combat the fentanyl trade by boosting support for law enforcement agencies. This includes investing in advanced imaging tools and leveraging artificial intelligence to improve the detection and interception of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals. These measures aim to disrupt and curb the illegal trade, helping to protect communities and save lives.

Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA)

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) will enhance its efforts to combat illegal drug trafficking by deploying advanced imaging and chemical detection tools at high-risk ports of entry. Additionally, the agency will train and deploy new canine teams to strengthen its interception capabilities. Currently, the CBSA operates over 80 detector dog teams stationed at ports of entry across Canada, playing a critical role in safeguarding communities from illegal drugs.

Health Canada

Health Canada is stepping up efforts to combat the illegal drug trade with the launch of the Precursor Chemical Risk Management Unit. This new unit will strengthen oversight of precursor chemicals, track their distribution, and enhance monitoring to support swift law enforcement action. By accelerating the regulatory process to ban high-risk precursor chemicals, the government is ensuring that border and law enforcement agencies can quickly crack down on their illegal importation and use.

In addition, Health Canada is creating the Canadian Drug Profiling Centre, a specialized lab dedicated to analyzing synthetic drug samples. Beyond identifying ingredients, the Centre will examine unique chemical markers to trace where and how these substances were made, providing crucial intelligence to dismantle production networks and disrupt illegal supply chains.

These initiatives mark a major step in Canada's fight against the illegal drug trade, helping to protect communities and prevent harmful substances from reaching the streets.

Enhancing Border Protection: Technology, Intelligence, and Collaboration

The Government of Canada is committed to enhancing border security by deploying cutting-edge technology and increasing personnel to detect and prevent threats more efficiently.

The RCMP will launch a new Aerial Intelligence Task Force, equipped with helicopters, drones, and mobile surveillance towers. This initiative, supported by counter-drone technology, will bolster surveillance capabilities between ports of entry, aiding officers in monitoring and responding to illegal activities.

Additionally, Public Safety Canada is spearheading the creation of a Joint Intelligence Group, with new investments to expand the RCMP and the Communications Security Establishment’s (CSE) intelligence-gathering capabilities. This will enable more effective targeting of transnational organized crime and fentanyl trafficking. The RCMP will also collaborate with law enforcement and the financial sector to enhance information sharing and combat sophisticated money laundering schemes.

To further strengthen border security, the Government is investing in the RCMP’s Border Integrity Program. These investments will improve the RCMP’s ability to patrol, detect, respond to, and investigate criminal threats along the Canada-U.S. border, particularly between ports of entry.

Finally, proposed legislative changes in the Fall Economic Statement 2024 will require port owners and operators to provide the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) with the necessary space and facilities for export inspections at no cost, mirroring existing requirements for import inspections.

Working Together: Canada’s Approach to Better Operational Coordination

The Government of Canada is enhancing operational coordination in two key areas:

Strengthening collaboration between federal, provincial, territorial, and local law enforcement agencies.

Deepening coordination with the United States to implement enhanced border protocols.

These efforts aim to ensure a more unified and effective approach to addressing shared challenges and protecting our communities.

Building a Safer Border: Canada’s Coordinated Efforts with the U.S.

Since January 6, 2025, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) has adjusted service hours at land ports of entry across Canada, aligning with the United States’ operational schedule. This coordinated effort, determined in collaboration with the U.S., enhances security for both countries and optimizes resource allocation by focusing officer deployment at busier ports of entry.

Additionally, the CBSA plans to launch its first-ever preclearance operation in the United States later this year. This initiative will streamline legitimate travel and trade while strengthening border security by identifying potential threats earlier in the process, before they reach Canada. Once established, Canada will be the only country with preclearance operations in the U.S.

Furthermore, work is underway to create a Canada-United States Enforcement Strike Force on Fentanyl. Modeled after successful multinational law enforcement collaborations, this strike force will bring together resources from multiple jurisdictions to address cross-border challenges, particularly the fentanyl crisis, with a unified and effective approach.

Collaborating for Safety: Canada’s Efforts to Combat Illegal Migration and Crime

By expanding opportunities to share critical intelligence on border interceptions, Canadian and American officials will strengthen their ability to identify and take decisive action against those attempting to exploit our immigration systems.

This enhanced collaboration will:

Improve monitoring of illegal migration trend

Optimize resource planning and deployment

Enable more effective targeting and disruption of transnational organized crime groups involved in illegal border crossings.

The Government of Canada is committed to building on existing information and intelligence-sharing efforts among federal, provincial, territorial authorities, the United States, and international partners. For example, the High-Risk Child Sex Offender Database Act, which came into force on December 31, 2024, allows the RCMP to develop a public database accessible to U.S. law enforcement partners once completed.

Enhanced information sharing will empower authorities to identify, monitor, and collaborate with partners to intercept high-risk individuals attempting to cross borders, ensuring greater safety and security for both countries.

A Stronger Border Plan: Addressing Immigration and Removal Priorities

The Government’s Border Plan addresses immigration issues that have been diverting resources from critical enforcement activities at the border. This includes taking decisive action to control who can enter and remain in Canada, as well as ensuring the asylum system protects those who genuinely need it while providing the tools to remove those who do not.

To strengthen the Canada Border Services Agency’s (CBSA) removal capabilities, the Government has allocated funding to increase the rate of removals for inadmissible individuals. This has already led to a significant rise in removals, reaching the highest number in a decade. Priority removals focus on safety and security concerns, including national security threats, organized crime, crimes against humanity, and criminal activity.

New measures have also been introduced to reduce the cost burden of removals by increasing fees for individuals seeking to return to Canada. This cost-recovery framework aligns with current removal expenses and encourages voluntary compliance with removal orders. From January 1 to October 31, 2024, the CBSA removed over 14,000 inadmissible foreign nationals.

Additionally, the CBSA has ended the practice of flagpoling for work and study permits at the border. Flagpoling, where temporary residents leave and re-enter Canada to access immigration services at ports of entry, has consumed significant resources, diverting officers from essential enforcement duties and slowing cross-border traffic. This change benefits both Canada and the United States by improving border management and maintaining the integrity of our shared border.

Ongoing border related efforts

Government of Canada departments and agencies have a longstanding tradition of collaboration, both domestically and with American and international partners, to ensure a safe and efficient border.

The Cross-Border Crime Forum (CBCF)

The CBCF is an annual joint ministerial forum co-hosted by Public Safety Canada, Justice Canada, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It brings together senior law enforcement and justice officials from both countries to strengthen partnerships in security, law enforcement, and intelligence, with a focus on protecting public safety.

Beyond the CBCF, Canadian and American officials and operators participate in numerous other forums to enhance cooperation and collaboration on cross-border issues. These efforts reflect the shared commitment to maintaining a secure and well-functioning border.

Strengthening Canada’s Immigration and Asylum Systems: Combating Fraud and Enhancing Integrity

The Government of Canada has taken significant steps to enhance the integrity of its immigration and asylum systems while combating fraud. Key measures include:

Expanding the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA):

Introduced an Additional Protocol to the STCA in partnership with the United States, extending its application to the entire land border, including internal waterways.

As a result, illegal border crossings for asylum claims have dropped dramatically, from an average of 165 per day in March 2023 to just 12 per day since the change.

Cancelling the Visitor-to-Worker Public Policy:

This policy had been exploited by bad actors to mislead and mistreat foreign nationals.

Implementing a Partial Visa Requirement for Mexican Nationals:

This measure has significantly reduced the high number of asylum claims from Mexican citizens, most of which were previously refused, withdrawn, or abandoned.

Managing Temporary Resident Arrivals:

Reforming the International Student Program to ensure its integrity.

Ending flagpoling for work permit.

Introducing new measures to address fraud in the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

Tightening eligibility requirements for:

Temporary foreign workers

Post-graduation work permits

Work permits for spouses of international students and temporary foreign workers.

Enhancing Fraud Detection and Screening:

Heightened screening and advanced tools to detect fraud and reduce the number of non-genuine visitors.

Re-examining and taking action on visas already in circulation when fraud is suspected.

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Canada’s Immigration System is Changing—Here’s What You Need to Know and Why It Matters to You

Canada’s Immigration System is Changing—Here’s What You Need to Know and Why It Matters to You