A 22-year-old father in Montreal has been granted a last-minute stay of deportation after a Federal Court judge ruled his removal could cause serious harm to his young family.

On Monday, the day before Miguel was set to present himself at the airport to be deported back to Mexico, a judge ruled he could remain in Canada for another three months, enough time to complete a pre-removal risk assessment (PRRA), a last-ditch effort to prove that he faces threats to his life in Mexico. Before the stay of deportation was granted, Miguel would have been removed from Canada 10 days before he’d become eligible for the PRRA on May 16.

“It’s a huge relief for the family, that will allow Miguel to access a PRRA,” said the family’s lawyer, Juliette Jan.

CBC News reported on Miguel and his family’s situation last week as Jan scrambled to try to prevent the young father’s separation from his partner, Andrea, and seven-month-old son, who is under medical evaluation for heart problems, as the family was given a month’s notice for the deportation.

CBC is not reporting 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.

Miguel, an apprentice carpenter, is the couple’s sole financial support and a key source of emotional stability for Andrea and their baby, according to a social worker assisting the family. Andrea is protected from deportation while she awaits a decision in her pre-removal risk assessment, which she applied for last year. The couple’s baby was born in Canada.

Advocates at the Montreal Welcome Collective helping the family say this situation is an example of harsh tactics used by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) in Quebec since the federal agency was mandated last year to increase deportations by a few thousand per fiscal year.

“We’re seeing more people getting deportation notices, more family separations and the CBSA seems to be acting faster and more aggressively,” said Maryse Poisson, who works at the Collective.

WATCH | Refugee lawyers concerned about rate of deportations in Canada:

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The Canada Border Services Agency is removing people, largely refugee claimants, from the country at a rate not seen in over a decade as the Carney government moves to slow population growth. Refugee lawyers express concern deportations may ramp up further if Bill C-12 passes next year.

Nearly half of 2025 deportations from Quebec

Poisson and several other advocates and lawyers CBC News has spoken with say border agents in Quebec appear to be discounting family separation and the best interest of children as mitigating factors in their push to remove more people from the country.

In 2025, deportations in the province well outpaced the rest of the country, rising above 10,000 — nearly half of total removals in Canada that year, according to CBSA statistics published online. Ontario, by comparison, had 8,700.

Anne-Cécile Khouri Raphaël, an immigration lawyer in Montreal and vice-president of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, says family separation cases in particular are concerning to lawyers across the country.

“Whenever I talk about my cases with lawyers in other provinces, they’re surprised,” she said.

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

The combination of the rise in deportations and passing of a major immigration reform in late March, putting thousands in immigration limbo, has lawyers and advocates clamouring to prevent families from being separated. 

In her decision, the Federal Court judge, Justice Ekaterina Tsimberis, found that deporting Miguel this week would have caused irreparable harm due to his baby’s heart condition, Andrea’s past trauma and the fact that Miguel is the family’s sole income-earner, so his removal could jeopardize their ability to meet basic needs.