When Canada Border Services Agency and Calgary police descended on the city’s new arena construction site last month in a search for undocumented workers, there were immediate concerns. Announcements, Events & more from Tyee and select partners CONTEST: Win a Limited Edition Book Box from Read Local BC CONTEST: Win a Limited Edition Book Box from Read Local BC

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The action came as reports of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents’ raids on workplaces dominated the news.

The Oct. 15 action in Calgary saw workers lined up outside the construction site and required to show identification. Four workers without proper documentation were not permitted to return to work.
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Between Jan. 1 and Oct. 22 the CBSA concluded 4,383 investigations into possible non-compliance with the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, including workplace investigations.

But Irene Bloemraad, a sociology professor at the University of British Columbia and a co-director of UBC’s Centre for Migration Studies, noted the involvement of the Calgary Police Service.

She said it raises questions about whether police should be doing immigration enforcement. In the United States, she said, it’s common that police departments don’t want to engage with immigration enforcement because it destroys trust with immigrant communities.

“By destroying trust, it has been much more difficult to investigate crimes,” Bloemraad explained. “So if there’s a crime in a particular neighbourhood but that neighbourhood has people who might be out of status, those people are not going to come forward to be witnesses.”

She said that police aren’t required and aren’t recommended, except in very narrow circumstances, to assist in immigration enforcement.

Mario Bellissimo, a Toronto immigration lawyer, said that CBSA visits to job sites aren’t new, but they’re more publicized now, especially with immigration raids south of the border.

He noted, however, that Canada has been removing record numbers of people from the country. In 2024, CBSA removed 17,357 people. The agency reported 15,207 in 2023. As of Sept. 30 this year, CBSA has removed 12,697 people.