As Canada tightens asylum rules, refugees reuniting with family say they were turned over to ICE and jailed for months after failed border claims
As each day in US detention passes, Markens Appolon can feel the life he had dreamed of slipping away.
The 25-year-old fled Haiti to escape the rampant gang violence that upended his university studies in economics, and planned to join family in Montreal.
But for the last four and a half months, Appolon has been incarcerated in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. He wonders how he would even begin to rebuild, if he is released.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day that passes, my mental heath is just getting worse. You see the world going on and you\u2019re just stuck here, watching,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m here, and even when I get out, the problem is going to be worse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Appolon had sought refuge in Canada<\/a>, believing that it offered a haven to those at risk. The fact that he had Canadian family should have meant he was eligible to claim asylum. Yet it was Canadian officials who handed him over to the ICE agents who detained him. But legal experts argue that the US should not be considered<\/a> a safe third country. They argue that the country\u2019s long-term detention of those seeking refuge and threats to deport asylum seekers to countries where they could be harmed or killed indicate that the US is not safe. According to Simpson, Canadian border guards have been more lenient in previous cases and should have given Appolon\u2019s aunt time to return. Canadian legislation does not specify that a relative must be physically in the country at the time a refugee is making a claim, she said. \u201cI thought Canadians are better than the US \u2026 but when I was treated like that, I thought there are some bad people in Canada,\u201d he said. But Canadian border officials did not believe he was Singh, despite his documents, and the fact that his fingerprints matched those already in the system. He was turned over to ICE and held in the agency\u2019s Buffalo detention centre before Simpson managed to convince Canadian officials of his identity. He was released and allowed to enter Canada in late April. Canadian Border Service Agency, the federal organization responsible for border control, said it could not comment on Appolon, Tenzin and Singh\u2019s cases due to privacy concerns. But it maintained that border services officers process claims \u201cimpartially\u201d and that claimants \u201cunderstand their rights\u201d. The spokesperson said CBSA agents can reconsider a refugee\u2019s claim in \u201cexceptional\u201d cases.
\u201cThis is what is so shocking about this case and others like it,\u201d said Erin Simpson, a Toronto-based immigration lawyer who is representing Appolon. \u201cCanada is participating in this. Canada is handing people over to ICE.\u201d
Simpson and other Canadian immigration lawyers say they have been inundated with cases like Appolon\u2019s since the start of Donald Trump\u2019s second term in office.
Refugees like Appolon attempt to claim asylum in Canada through an exception to the country\u2019s Safe Third Country Agreement with the US<\/a>. Under the agreement, refugees must seek asylum in the first \u201csafe country\u201d they arrive in. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Canada is tightening its own asylum system. New legislation enacted in March has created further ineligibility rules for refugee claimants, prompting critics to accuse Mark Carney\u2019s government of introducing Trump-style immigration policies.<\/a>
Refugees like Appolon remain jailed in the US \u201cbecause Canada conducted proceedings at the border in a manner that was rigid and, frankly, unfair\u201d, said Simpson.
\u201cThe consequences for him couldn\u2019t be more serious,\u201d she said.
Appolon fled Haiti in 2023 when the country was mired in devastating gang warfare, a political power vacuum, economic collapse and famine. He moved to Florida where he lived with an uncle on a special humanitarian visa program granted by the Biden administration that allowed him to work and study.
When Trump returned to power and threatened to end the program, Appolon decided to claim asylum in Canada.
A refugee attempting to enter Canada from the US must prove they have Canadian family members in the country to be allowed in. Otherwise, they are meant to make use of the US system.
Appolon reached the Quebec-Vermont border on 28 December, but was rejected and turned over to ICE. His aunt, a Canadian citizen, was temporarily out of the country for a family emergency, and border agents told him without her physically present in the country, he could not enter.<\/p>\n
Despite recent legislation, Canada still enjoys a global reputation as a welcoming country for refugees and immigrants. But the consequences for rejection have become more severe, according to several immigration lawyers.
While people seeking refugee status have in the past been turned away at the Canadian border, immigration lawyers say the situation has become significantly worse since Trump returned to power.
The Trump administration has created turmoil for those who previously entered the US before 2025 under humanitarian visas and other temporary immigration statuses that are now under threat.
As a result, more are considering Canada. This has prompted a tightening of controls at the border as Canada seeks to ward off a potential cascade of claims, even if the country is capable of receiving claimants.
Tenzin, a refugee from Tibet, said Canada\u2019s willingness to send him into ICE incarceration seemed entirely antithetical to its international image. The 29-year-old tried to claim asylum in Canada at the US border in August. His Canadian family was waiting for his arrival.<\/p>\n
He was soon placed in ICE\u2019s Buffalo facility. By December, Tenzin started to lose control of the muscles on the left side of his face.
After begging to be seen by a doctor for days, he said ICE agents finally took him to a hospital. His hands and ankles were handcuffed and he was transported in the middle of a snowstorm wearing a thin sweatsuit. The agents told him they had run out of coats.
A doctor diagnosed him with Bell\u2019s palsy, an illness that causes sudden facial paralysis.
The Guardian is only using Tenzin\u2019s first name as he fears that speaking publicly about his time in ICE detention will affect employment opportunities.
Heather Neufeld, an Ottawa immigration lawyer who represents Tenzin, said as a stateless refugee in Nepal, he did not qualify for travel documents. His only chance to leave Nepal was through obtaining a fraudulent passport from India in order to reach Canada from the US border.
When he tried to claim asylum, she said border officials refused to interview Tenzin\u2019s family.
\u201cThe officer was not willing to consider the possibility that he really was a Tibetan refugee,\u201d she said.
Neufeld was able to successfully argue that Tenzin\u2019s treatment at the Canadian border was riddled with procedural. He was freed in February, and joined family in Toronto.
Canada could afford to take in many more refugees coming from the US, said Audrey Macklin, an immigration and refugee law professor at the University of Toronto.
Yet the country\u2019s upholding of the Safe Third Country Agreement and the recent tightening of its asylum system shatters that image, she said.
\u201c[Canada] constantly intones how generous it is to refugees,\u201d she said. \u201cBut clearly, there\u2019s no political will there,\u201d she said.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, the federal department that manages the arrival of asylum seekers, said the US Safe Third Country Agreement was an \u201cimportant tool for the orderly management of asylum claims\u201d.
Canadian law requires a Safe Third Country to uphold a commitment to human rights<\/a>. The agency said the US was \u201ccontinuously monitored\u201d to ensure it meets those standards.
Gurbir Singh said he fled India after receiving death threats from the police, and attempted to seek asylum in Canada on 25 March, planning to join family in Brampton, a city on the outskirts of Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve certainly never seen that. But we are seeing a real rigidity in the exceptions at the border and a real failure to recognize the extraordinary cost of erroneous decision making,\u201d said Simpson.
\u201cI felt that Canada is known for its human rights. But they did not give me any rights \u2026 they said \u2018you cannot stay here,\u2019\u201d said Singh.<\/p>\n
Refugees are responsible for proving their eligibility to enter Canada, the agency said. Border officials must be \u201csatisfied\u201d that it is \u201cmore likely than not that a family relationship exists\u201d. <\/p>\n
US ICE did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n