A Canadian refugee claimant who is in ICE custody after accidentally entering the U.S. is prohibited from re-entering the country, the Canada Border Services Agency says.<\/p>\n
Mahin Shahriar, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi national and Canadian refugee claimant had been living in Canada since 2019, but says he inadvertently crossed the Canada-U.S. border<\/a> in May and has been in ICE custody in Buffalo, N.Y. ever since. <\/p>\n The CBSA now says he is permanently barred from re-entering Canada without legal authorization. \u00a0<\/p>\n Shahriar\u2019s lawyer, Washim Ahmed, a partner with OWS Law in Mississauga, says he is taking his client\u2019s case before the Federal Court on Thursday. He is pursuing a judicial review application of the Canada Border Services Agency\u2019s handling of his client\u2019s refugee claim.<\/p>\n He told NP he is concerned his client will be returned to Bangladesh, where he could face imprisonment and possibly torture. In an Oct. 17 email to NP he wrote that his firm \u201cis in the process of obtaining certified court documents confirming these charges. These records \u2026 indicate that Mahin faces a serious \u2026 risk of imprisonment and torture if returned.\u201d<\/p>\n Shahriar faces obstruction of justice charges for helping his mother and younger sister flee Bangladesh, Ahmed says. After his parents\u2019 marriage broke down, he explains, Shahriar, his mother and sister fled to Canada.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, he says ICE may not have Mahin\u2019s full case details, but they \u201care aware that he was a former refugee claimant in Canada and that his mother holds protected-person status here \u2026 ICE has explicitly confirmed that it would return him to Canada if CBSA authorizes the transfer \u2014 but CBSA has so far declined to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n The CBSA has not provided its decision in Shahriar\u2019s case, Ahmed says. \u201cTheir refusal to provide reasons appears calculated to prevent us from seeking appropriate legal recourse.\u201d<\/p>\n Ahmed says he will be seeking court orders compelling the CBSA to provide its decision, as well as cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to facilitate Shahriar\u2019s return to Canada, he told the National Post in a second email on Tuesday, Oct. 21. He will also be asking the court to compel the CBSA to disclose all of its communication with ICE.<\/p>\n So, Shahriar \u201cis in limbo,\u201d Ahmed adds. \u00a0A person is not allowed to apply in Canada and the U.S simultaneously, Ahmed explains. <\/p>\n \u201cHowever, since Canada has not agreed to accept him, ICE intends to deport him to his country of citizenship, Bangladesh.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Shariar\u2019s refugee claim has been complicated by him falling victim to a fraudulent immigration consultant, says Ahmed. His claim was rejected because of that. Before his ICE detention, Ahmed says he was preparing a Humanitarian and Compassionate application for permanent residence and intended to include evidence of the fraud that tainted the refugee claim.<\/p>\n The Post reached out to the CBSA for comment and the first emailed response, received on Oct. 17 from CBSA spokesperson Rebecca Purdy<\/a>, states that information about Shahriar\u2019s case could not be provided because of federal privacy law.<\/p>\n Instead, Purdys aid that the \u201cCBSA is not responsible for a person\u2019s decision to leave Canada and does not intervene on behalf of foreign nationals who are later subject to immigration enforcement after having entered another country.\u201d<\/p>\n A more detailed CBSA response was emailed to the Post on Oct. 19 from Luke Reimer, senior communications office<\/a>r with the CBSA.<\/p>\n Reimer stated that Shahriar\u2019s refugee claim was heard by the Refugee Protection Division and later its Refugee Appeal Division of Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB). They \u201cfound him not to be in need of protection. His request for leave to pursue a judicial review of this decision was dismissed by the Federal Court.\u201d<\/p>\n The latter comment seems to contradict Ahmed\u2019s position.<\/p>\n Further, Reimer wrote, \u201cThe CBSA had already initiated removal proceedings when Mr. Shahriar left Canada of his own accord. Having done so, Mr. Shahriar waived the right to any further recourse that could stay his removal, as he was now already outside Canada.<\/p>\n \u201cWith evidence that Mr. Shahriar was no longer in Canada, the CBSA administratively enforced his removal order \u2026\u00a0 Canada has no obligation to accept Mr. Shahriar\u2019s return, and he is permanently barred from re-entering Canada without an authorization to return.\u201d<\/p>\n Reimer did not state whether these same arguments will be made during the Federal Court hearing on Thursday.<\/p>\n The Post contacted the ICE office in Buffalo for detailed comment, but none was forthcoming. Instead, an email was sent last week stating \u201cwe cannot share any details with you about another person\u201d without proper legal documentation.<\/p>\n Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com<\/a> and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Canadian refugee claimant who is in ICE custody after accidentally entering the U.S. is prohibited from re-entering…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44005,78593,111225,44,111224,111227,8938,111226],"class_list":["post-234914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cbsa","tag-federal-court","tag-mahin-shahriar","tag-news","tag-refugee-claim","tag-shahriar","tag-u-s-immigration-and-customs-enforcement","tag-washim-ahmed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}