U.S. and Canada now share data on permanent residents crossing border

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OTTAWA — Top immigration lawyers say it’s “shocking” that the federal government quietly signed a new deal with the U.S. government that automatically trades troves of personal data of millions of permanent residents in either country when they try to cross the U.S.-Canada border.

In July, the U.S. and Canadian government quietly made a major change to a 2012 agreement that authorized the automatic sharing of personal information between both countries of non-residents who applied for visas.

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The original deal deliberately excluded permanent residents and citizens of both countries from the information sharing regime. But an updated agreement quietly tabled in Parliament in October added permanent residents to the list of individuals whose personal information would automatically be sent to either government if they tried to cross the U.S.-Canada border.

The updated agreement, which was signed in July but came into force this month, impacts potentially millions of permanent residents in Canada and even more in the U.S. if they decide to apply for a visa to visit either country.

In a statement, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) spokesperson Jeffrey MacDonald said that information sharing between the U.S. and Canada “strengthens visitor screening and supports managed migration.”

“The Government of Canada will be authorized to use biographic or biometric information of U.S. permanent residents (PR) making an immigration application to Canada to query and obtain information concerning their immigration history with the U.S,” MacDonald wrote.

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“Likewise, the U.S. will be authorized to use biographic or biometric information of Canadian PRs making an immigration application to the U.S. to query and obtain information concerning their immigration history with Canada,” he added.

According to a government website, the information being shared ranges from a visa applicant’s personal information, picture, fingerprint and immigration history.

In an interview, immigration lawyer Mario Bellissimo said that automatically sending the U.S. government data about Canadian permanent residents wanting to cross the southern border is akin to a “devaluation” of permanent resident status.

“On what basis did the government determine that permanent residence needed to be surveilled in this way?,” wondered the chair of the Canadian Bar Association’ national immigration law section.

But the changes were kept quiet by the Canadian government until a brief mention by Immigration Minister Marc Miller during a press conference Wednesday, raising significant concerns among immigration lawyers as to why the major change was kept quiet for so long.

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Miller denied that he had signed the deal in secret and admitted that a lot of people would be impacted by the change. But he argued that the addition of permanent residents was in the U.S. and Canada’s “mutual interest” in the context of President-elect Donald Trump’s complaints about safety at the northern border.

But the amendments to the agreement were negotiated and signed in the summer with the Joe Biden administration, months before the presidential election that Donald Trump would win.

“If people want to travel the border, the welcoming country needs to have the expectation that they can get a sense of whether that person is traveling the border for the reasons that they’re doing that,” he said Wednesday.

“Sharing information on permanent residents traveling across the border allows for a managed flow of information on both sides,” he continued, adding that privacy rights are significantly diminished when crossing the border.

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Most lawyers contacted by National Post found out about the major changes through our reporter’s questions this fall and were outraged by the opacity surrounding the change.

“This is deliberately opaque,” said Bellissimo.

“I could come up with hundreds of questions I’d want to ask, and the fact that we didn’t have that opportunity, or, individuals, not just in the immigration space, but just generally, were not asked. That’s just shocking,” he added.

In an interview this fall, immigration lawyer David Garson said the addition of permanent residents to the information sharing regime is as concerning to him as the lack of disclosure for months by the Canadian government.

“There’s a heightened sense of security, we live in a dangerous world and I’m assuming that the U.S. is just looking for any scrap of information they can in the world,” he said.

“But there is a privacy issue, of course. If I’m a permanent resident of Canada… and you’re giving my information to another country, that is concerning to me. And there’s no doubt it’s concerning,” he added.

Bellissimo also noted that there appear to have been no real privacy checks by the Canadian government before changing the deal with the U.S.

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“They’re going to come back and say, ‘no, this is just basic information collection just to ensure people’s identity’. But where’s the assurances that that is the case? No algorithmic impact assessment, no privacy impact assessment, nothing,” Bellissimo said.

In an email this fall, lawyer Steven Meurrens said that he wasn’t surprised by the change because of the ever-increasing automated exchange of information between the U.S. and Canada.

“I think that it just reinforces the growing notion that there is no privacy at the border. It wouldn’t surprise me if the same becomes true for citizens in the near future,” he noted.

National Post
cnardi@postmedia.com

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