So just who are we deporting?

Recently, the Canada Border Services Agency reported that it has deported close to 19,000 foreign criminals and security threats from the country in the last decade.
“Our position is clear, Canada will not be a safe haven to those who endanger the safety and security of Canadians,” the agency said in e-mails to the media.
But the CBSA deportation numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Mostly the deported are the people who have made it to our shores who can’t afford lawyers.
In Canada, it is a well known fact that our refugee and immigration enforcement system is heavily influenced by who fights for you.
Do it yourself and chances are you will get the boot.
Do it with a battery of lawyers and high price legal challenges and it is likely that you can get to stay or at least stay for a long time.
This was the case of Rakesh Saxena, Thailand’s fugitive financier who finally left to face a raft charges in Bangkok recently.
The fugitive cost Canadian taxpayers tens of millions of dollars fighting extradition for 13 years.
The Saxena battle has been the longest in Canadian history.
Another case in point is Karlheinz Schreiber, a former arms-industry lobbyist, who this year lost a 10-year fight against extradition to Germany.
Similarly we have others like financial fugitives from China, the Philippines and Mexico who have hired a battery of lawyers to navigate around the rules of inadmissibility to avoid facing charges in their homeland.
The CBSA and Immigration Canada may be proud of the recently released deportation numbers.
But the true test of our nation’s borders should also be measured in the number of removals of wealthy fugitives.
The figure of 19,000 deportations over the past decade also does not take into account some of the other startling numbers discovered by Vancouver lawyer Richard Kurland via his access to information request.
According to the government documents obtained by Kurland, Almost 160,000 foreign nationals ordered deported remain in Canada as of August 2009.
Of that number, 41,000 people have disappeared while in the deportation process, 18,000 are in the final stage of deportation from Canada ( two to nine per cent are criminals, Kurland says) while about 100,000 are fighting removal to their homelands hoping that hearings delayed will result in deportation orders denied.
Most of the foreign nationals ordered out are from China, Mexico, India, Pakistan and the United States.
The cost of removal can range from $1,500 per person to $500,000 for a high risk fugitive who requires a private plane.
So when all is taken and done, just who are we deporting?