Scores of asylum claimants waiting for their cases to be assessed have in the past few days been warned by the Immigration Department they may imminently face deportation, with many letters sent the day after a bill tightening up asylum rules became law.

Immigration lawyers said the letters have caused panic among clients waiting for their cases to be assessed by the independent Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) and who now face removal from Canada.

A spokesperson for Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab said 30,000 asylum seekers could be affected by the law.

“Now that Bill C-12 has become law, we are in the process of sending procedural fairness letters to individuals who could be impacted,” said Taous Ait, the spokesperson.

“As of January 31, 2026, this number was estimated to reach approximately 30,000 individuals,” she said in an e-mail.

The lawyers predict there will be a surge in filings to the Federal Court for judicial review of deportation decisions, leading to further backlogs of immigration and asylum cases.

Some letters from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, marked “redetermination - ineligibility,” were sent out March 27, the day after the Strengthening Canada’s Immigration System and Borders Act became law. They state that foreign nationals who made their asylum claim more than a year after entering Canada are no longer eligible to have their case heard by the IRB and may face deportation.

The new rules apply to asylum claimants who entered Canada after June 24, 2020.

Many of those who have received the letters are in the queue at the IRB for their case to be considered. The backlog is so long at the IRB it takes about two years for claims to be assessed either with a hearing or through a paper-only “file review” process.

The letters, stating the date of the asylum claimant’s arrival in Canada and date of asylum claim, ask recipients to send additional information about their entry to Canada saying that if none is received by April 17 a decision on whether their claim can be heard by the IRB will be based on the information on file.

“If the decision is that your claim is ineligible for referral to the Refugee Protection Division, you will face removal from Canada,” it said.

The new law barring asylum claims from people who have been in Canada for more than a year sparked warnings from refugee advocates and lawyers that it could lead to many genuine refugee claimants being deported.

Ms. Metlege Diab told MPs that those who are ineligible for an asylum hearing at the IRB would, before being deported, have access to a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment. She said the assessment, like a hearing at the IRB, would look at risks of being sent back and could result in asylum claimants being permitted to remain here.

But Stéfanie Morris, a refugee lawyer with Community Legal Services of Ottawa, said the PRRA has fewer safeguards than an IRB hearing.

“In our experience, decisions made by PRRA officers often include serious legal errors that are frequently overturned by the Federal Court,” she said.

Toronto immigration lawyer Max Berger said the IRCC letters warning of deportation are “causing mass panic” among asylum seekers. He said the letter should have mentioned the right to a preremoval risk assessment.

“I am getting a lot of e-mails from anxious clients,” he said. “They made refugee claims because they are asserting they have a well-founded fear of persecution.”

“Denying a refugee hearing to everyone who claims after one year is akin to throwing out the baby with the bathwater,” he added in an e-mail. “The whole purpose of a hearing is to determine which claims are genuine.”

He predicted that the new law would lead to a slew of appeals to the Federal Court, which has seen a steep rise in immigration cases in the past few years.

“We are going to see the Federal Court, which is already terribly backlogged, even more backlogged,” he said.

At the end of last year, immigration and refugee cases made up about 82 per cent of the court’s pending caseload, with the volume of immigration filings rising year over year.

At the end of December last year there were 23,099 pending immigration cases, compared with 11,916 pending at the end of December, 2024, and 9,759 the previous December.

Toronto immigration lawyer Andra Dumitrescu said she expected that the backlog would rise still further with asylum claimants now facing deportation going to the Federal Court for judicial review. She also said the entire bill would likely face a legal challenge, based on the right to an oral hearing for refugee claimants.

Joycna Kang, a partner at Battista Migration Law Group, and a director of the Canadian Immigration Lawyers’ Association, said her phone has been ringing “off the hook” with calls from concerned clients worried about “this really scary letter.”

She also predicted the Federal Court would see an increase in challenges to deportation decisions.

Toronto Immigration Lawyer Ravi Jain, a past president of the Canadian Immigration Lawyers Association, said the new asylum bill was designed to deal with “immigration consultants counselling clients to make refugee claims improperly.”

“Rather than deal with the real problem head on, they are now banning legitimate refugees along with all the fake ones,” he said.

Canada has seen an increase in asylum claims from international students, who have been the target of immigration restrictions, in the past few years. Over the past year, 17 per cent of asylum claims came from students, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

News story source (reference)Scores of asylum claimants warned they may face deportation after immigration law passes