Some migrants facing deportation go to these holding centres. CBC News went inside one | CBC News

Parts of Toronto’s Immigration Holding Centre — where migrants are detained by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) before they’re either deported or released into the community to wait for their immigration cases to be heard — look like university dorm rooms.

Minley Lloyd is a CBSA assistant director of immigration enforcement operations. She points out a gym with yoga mats and weight training equipment, a small library that doubles as a prayer room, and bedrooms that open onto a shared common lounge with sofas and TVs.

Outside, there’s a playground and soccer field — surrounded by wire fences.

“It’s definitely from a look and feel perspective, not what you think of when you think about a jail or detention centre, and immigration detention is very unique in that sense …” said Sajjad Bhatti, a CBSA director of immigration enforcement operations.

“Ultimately, it is not a detention for corrective purposes.”

The layout of the centre, to which CBC News was granted exclusive access this week, highlights the unique nature of immigration detention. Those living there aren’t allowed to leave the facility, even though they haven’t been charged with any crimes.

For years, provinces imprisoned some migrants in jails while officials determined whether they would be deported to their countries of origin. But that meant forcing migrants to rub elbows with people charged with or convicted of crimes.

One Somali man told Radio-Canada in 2023 that he spent five years and seven months in maximum security jails in Ontario. At one point, he said, he was attacked by inmates because of a dispute over peanut butter that turned violent.

International organizations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International campaigned against the practice and released a report in 2021 that alleged detainees were facing abusive conditions.

Beginning in 2022, all 10 provinces agreed they would no longer incarcerate migrants on behalf of the federal government and gave CBSA one year’s notice, as required by some of their contracts. Ontario recently extended its contract until September 2025.

Although CBSA officials highlight the amenities of their holding centres, there are still areas that resemble jails.

In the Toronto location, there are three “wet cells” with plastic beds bolted to the floor, security cameras and detention-grade doors. Lloyd said they’re meant for high-risk detainees who could be violent in the standard dorm rooms.

“We do not like to use this. As you can tell, it is a very stark area,” Lloyd added.

Trump threatens mass deportations

Donald Trump’s election to a second term as U.S. president, and his plans to deport millions of undocumented immigrants, have raised concerns in Canada about more migrants trying to flee to Canada.

They may end up in the Toronto holding centre, which has a total of 205 beds. On Tuesday, when CBC visited, it was about one-third full with 66 detainees in the building.

But officials say they’re ready for any possible increase in the number of detainees.

“We are set up from an operational and a policy and program perspective to react to any type of situation,” Bhatti said.

Aaron McCrorie, vice-president of intelligence and enforcement at CBSA, said the agency has to take the possibility of a surge in migrants “seriously” and is “actively engaged in developing contingency plans.”

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“We’re developing a tiered plan that will respond with the necessary resources and capacity based on where the volumes materialize,” McCrorie added.

He also said that unless migrants from the United States meet certain exceptions, they can’t come into Canada and make an asylum claim.

“You won’t be admitted to Canada if you’re not admissible,” McCrorie said. “If you do manage to get into Canada and you’re inadmissible, we will remove you. And if you’re a threat to the public, we will detain you.”

Finding alternatives to detention

Most people in the holding centres are being detained because they’re a flight risk, they pose a danger to the public or their identity is unknown.

But the CBSA says the vast majority of people subject to immigration control measures are actually out in Canadian communities on what’s known as “alternative to detention” (ATD).

At the beginning of November, 13,181 people were on an ATD while 158 were in CBSA-run Immigration Holding Centres. Another 24 people “could not be safely managed in an IHC” and were placed in an Ontario provincial jail, the CBSA said.

Bhatti said the CBSA encourages migrants to voluntarily comply and follow directions to report to their offices, which can allow migrants to stay in their communities while they wait to hear about their potential deportation.

“Detention itself really is and should be a measure of absolute last resort,” Bhatti said. “We afford individuals a lot of opportunities to voluntarily comply.”

Bhatti said the agency takes pride in treating detainees with “humanity and dignity” but stressed their mandate is to “ensure Canada’s safety and security.”

“And if that ultimately means you have to remain within detention, we will argue for that individual to remain detained so we can affect their removal from Canada.”

Minors in detention

Canadian immigration authorities have been criticized for years for detaining and keeping minors in holding centres like the one in Toronto.

In 2017, the federal government issued a directive tightening the rules on detaining minors in holding centres. It said the best interests of the child must be given “primary consideration” in any decision to detain.

The number of minors detained or housed at holding centres across Canada has come down since that directive was issued. Between 2015 and 2016, a total of 201 minors were housed in immigration holding centres.

Between 2023 and 2024, 19 minors were housed in immigration holding centres. The CBSA said 13 of these minors were not subject to a deportation order, so they could leave and re-enter the holding centre with consent from a parent or legal guardian.

Bhatti said CBSA officers recognize there are “a lot of impacts that come with detention of minors and family units” and the agency tries to avoid doing that “to the best of our ability.”

When asked if children are separated from parents who are being sent to the holding centre, Bhatti said “we wouldn’t do that to the family unit…. There is no splitting of families.”

‘Detention is detention,’ says immigration lawyer

Immigration lawyer Jared Will said that although the CBSA holding centres have a different look than provincial jails, “detention is detention.

“If you can’t go out the front gate, there’s something baseline about that experience that doesn’t change for anyone.”

Will also criticized CBSA for framing the need to detain people as a public safety issue. 

Last year, 3,928 people were detained on the grounds of being unlikely to appear for examination, an admissibility hearing, a removal from Canada or a proceeding that could lead to a removal order, according to CBSA data.

Only 60 people were detained solely on the grounds of being a danger to the public.

Will argues the overall system isn’t fair, pointing to lengthy delays in processing cases and Canadian authorities providing insufficient information about detainees’ cases to immigration lawyers.

“There is a veneer of fairness over the process, but in most cases it’s just a veneer,” Will said.

McCrorie said sometimes it’s necessary to detain people, because some feel the “best way to avoid immigration requirements is to flee.”

“There are individuals who we will try to put into an alternative detention that repeatedly violate that, repeatedly seek to avoid the measures — for example, being removed from the country,” he added.

With provinces cancelling their contracts with the CBSA, the Trudeau government wants to use federal prisons to detain migrants deemed “high-risk.” It proposed in its April budget to amend legislation to do so.

In September, CBSA said it would use a federal prison in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Que. as a “temporary location to house high-risk detainees. This location would only be used to detain adult males who present a significant risk to public safety.”

Will said that one “very obvious problem” with the facility is its geographic isolation, which dislocates detainees from their families, support networks and lawyers.

“We see immigration detainees who are transferred from one facility to another, and suddenly we find out after the fact that our client is 300 kilometres away and things become more difficult,” he added.