Posted on 03/30/2006 7:56:18 AM PST by aCDNinUSA
Thousands are sent back to Portugal
BETWEEN 15,000 and 22,000 Portuguese illegal immigrants could be deported from Canada. An unprecedented operation has started to expatriate all the illegal immigrants working in the country.
In February, the Ambassador to the country, João Silveira de Carvalho, received an official communication from the Immigration Ministry saying that all Portuguese working in Canada without a permit would be ordered to return immediately to their country.
The first Portuguese families have been put on aeroplanes and forced to leave. Some of the families had been living in Canada for several years and many had already bought houses there. They were given only a few days’ notice to make preparations, pack their bags, and get rid of possessions they couldn't take on the flight to Lisbon. A large number of the group being deported went to Canada to meet the demands of a booming construction industry, particularly in Toronto. Estimates state that about 75 per cent of the workers are in the country illegally.
"If you have bought a new home or a new condo, you know that the waiting times for getting a place just keep on getting longer and longer," Pedro Barata of the Portuguese National Congress said. "I think that the more we deport people who are needed in the construction industry, the longer those waits are going to be."
Some estimates say that 15,000 people are working illegally in Ontario's construction and hospitality industries, and the Canada-wide figure is 300,000. Immigration sources said there will not be an amnesty. The federal agency said they have a legal duty to remove people who have come to the country without following the proper procedures.
Many in the group deported say they will try to return to Canada and resume the lives they have built. Portuguese Foreign Minister, Diogo Freitas do Amaral, has announced that he will travel to Canada this week for discussions with the Ottawa authorities.
In a statement, Freitas do Amaral said he had decided to travel to Canada to discuss ‘the sudden change in policy by the authorities in relation to Portuguese nationals living and working there without visas’. The Portuguese authorities announced earlier that a reception centre is being set up at Lisbon Airport to give support to nationals arriving from Canada.
Well...there goes the cod fish and baby seal industries.
Dang IT can be done! Canada is setting a fine example.
Gooooooooooooo Canada!
I'm a resident of the Portugese neighborhood in Montreal. They are without a doubt the most friendly and efficacious of people. I really must remember to protest this with a letter to my MP.
Go ahead - but it is a "low priority" according to Monte Solberg who is the Minister of Immigration. A liberal he isn't and he doesn't have the patience for illegals in Canada. They have broken the law and won't be rewarded with any amnesty.
Should read "know that there's no racism".
Only 2 days here on FR and you are siding with illegals? Me thinks you have picked the wrong place to hang out as you are not amongst illegal immigrant sympathizers.
I sure hope you are talking "tongue-in-cheek."
Regardless of whether they are nice or not, the fact is if they illegals they need to get into the back of the line with those who are working their way through the LEGAL system!
Welcome them to the neighborhood when they do so.
Quick....send a copy of this to Dubya and several hundred to Congress! The Canadians don't CARE if the Portguese are doing jobs Canadians won't do....
also, related to this statement:"Some of the families had been living in Canada for several years and many had already bought houses there."
my question is this, how can an illegal buy property?
Heck, if Canada can ship thier illegals back across the Atlantic, we should be able to move a bunch of them back over the US southern border. So what if it takes a couple years. In the long run, it'll save the US as we know it.
I couldn't agree more with you. This is not about racism - it's about being fair to taxpayers and those who are waiting to be legal immigrants themselves.
Wow! Canadians have more balz to enforce immigration than Washingmachine DC.
In our position, if we didn't have another illegal alien enter the country, sending 100,000 a year home would take us a little over a century.
We can't do this in the USA because we don't know who the illegals are or where they live.
Ahhhhh...contrary to popular beleif on this thread. THE US DOES SHIP MANY A MEXICAN NATIONAL HERE ILLEGALLY BACK ACROSS THE BORDER...but the numbers are so high, hard to send them all...it's a big, big, border.
MEXICO IS THE ROOT OF OUR PROBLEM. And US employers willing to use foreign nationals of dubious work documentation is part of it.
Vicente Fox pays lip service to resolving the issue since it is economically viable for that corrupt nation to send all its people of work age over here...We can build a wall...they will still come...We can militarize the border...they will still come. If we somehow are able to force employers not to hire illgeal aliens (i.e. have the man power to enforce existing laws) perhaps we can stem the tide...
But, unfortunately, the only solution is to beat the MEXICAN government into capitulation to resolve its internal issues...1836, all over again...
Don't you love some of these people?
About a week ago, FR was getting flooded with newly minted McLamiacs trying to convince why we should be for him and how he was "electable".
I am utterly sick of that being the sole justification for putting these idiots in office.
That sudden change would be a newly democratically elected government.
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