Miguel, 22, is the breadwinner of his young family. An apprentice carpenter in Montreal and father to a seven-month-old, he now faces deportation in what lawyers and advocates say is becoming an increasingly common situation where asylum seeker families face separation by Canada’s push to deport more people. 

Miguel’s partner, 23-year-old Andrea, fled an abusive partner in Mexico, and was again victim to domestic violence in Canada, sending her to hospital two years ago.

Holding their baby boy, Andrea describes Miguel as both the family’s sole provider and a constant support at home.

“I know no one will take care of my son better than his father,” Andrea told CBC at the offices of the Montreal Welcome Collective, an organization helping refugees and asylum seekers.

“I live with a lot of anxiety; I developed paranoia,” she said, adding that Miguel has been a key source of stability.

She cares for the couple’s baby full-time; the child is under frequent medical evaluation for heart problems.

CBC has agreed to withhold Miguel and Andrea’s last names as Miguel faces threats from cartel members in Mexico and Andrea fears being tracked by her abusive partners in Mexico and in Quebec, where her ex was recently released from jail.

The family is scrambling to convince the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to give them more time to appeal with what’s called a pre-removal risk assessment, a last-ditch effort to prove to immigration officials he faces threats to his life in Mexico. 

But his deportation date — May 5 — comes 10 days before he’d be eligible for that.

“What we’re seeing is that the [CBSA] often does everything to deport a person a few days, sometimes a few weeks, before they are entitled to a process” to obtain status, said Maryse Poisson of the Welcome Collective. 

Rise in deportations

Canada announced last year a series of measures to tighten immigration policies, which included setting a deportation target of 20,000 people per fiscal year between 2025 and 2027. 

Between 2020 and 2024, the CBSA had deported between 7,500 and 17,000 people. In 2025, that number jumped to more than 23,000.

The “next step” in the border plan was to introduce two immigration bills, according to the federal government’s website — the Strong Borders Act, proposed in June to increase border surveillance, and Bill C-12, which came into law at the end of March, nullifying 30,000 asylum claims. Both have proven controversial.

The combination of the rise in deportations and passing of C-12, putting thousands in immigration limbo, has lawyers and advocates clamoring to prevent families from being separated. 

They say border agents in Quebec no longer appear to consider aggravating factors such as the best interests of a child or the impact of separating a parent from their family.

“Whenever I talk about my cases with lawyers in other provinces, they’re surprised,” said Anne-Cécile Khouri Raphaël, who is the vice president of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers and an immigration lawyer in Montreal. 

“It seems like it’s incredibly normalized for CBSA to be dealing with these family separations,” Khouri Raphaël said. “The only way that I can [understand it] is that they don’t see these families like they see their own.”

The Welcome Collective has assisted in nearly a dozen cases of family separations in the past year, namely a number of cases where at least one member of the family’s refugee claim was successful.

In Andrea’s case, she is awaiting a decision for a pre-removal risk assessment and is protected from deportation in the meantime. The Welcome Collective advocates hope Miguel will be granted the same opportunity.

Poisson says there is a shortage of immigration lawyers in Quebec, making it harder for families to find representation in time to appeal their removal, or to represent them in their asylum hearings.

Last month, CBC reported the story of an Indian father — also his family’s sole income earner — who faced deportation despite awaiting a permanent residency application tied to his wife’s status as a protected person. 

The Canadian Council for Refugees published an open letter earlier this month, calling for the federal ministers of immigration and public security to prevent such separations. 

While the CBSA has a legal right to deport people without status like Miguel, several immigration experts CBC spoke with say the federal agency appears to be acting faster and more aggressively in Quebec without using its discretionary powers to prioritize family reunification and the best interests of children — as outlined in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. 

Deportations in the province well outpaced the rest of the country in 2025, rising above 10,000 — nearly half of total removals in Canada that year. Ontario, by comparison, had 8,700.

CBC requested comment from CBSA, but didn’t immediately receive a response.

Told to buy his own plane ticket

Miguel says he had begun to build a stable life in Canada since he arrived three years ago: working on a farm, learning English, paying taxes and finding a steady job in construction.

In early April, Miguel says he received a notice to present himself at CBSA offices and was then informed he would have to either purchase his own plane ticket or incur a $4,000 debt to Canada, plus interest, were he ever to return.

“I told him … that my son was sick and we needed more medical appointments here,” Miguel said. “He told me that wasn’t his problem.”

He said he felt the process was rushed and lacked empathy, but that the most difficult part isn’t just the idea of having to leave, it’s what it would mean for his family.

“What surprised me most was being separated from my family,” he said. “I’m the one who pays for everything — the rent, the food, everything.”

Immigration lawyer Juliette Jean took on Miguel’s case at the last minute “when I learned there was a newborn involved. It seemed particularly sad and damaging from a human perspective,” she said.