application review: The program imposes criteria on the applications that go far beyond what Congress has authorized, including holding up some applications if the applicants donated to Muslim charities or travelled to Muslim-majority countries, the complaint alleges, according to Metro News. The program was not publicly discovered until 2012, when an immigration officer discussed it during testimony in a different lawsuit. The lawsuit claims the government since 2008 has used the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program to blacklist thousands of applications for asylum, legal permanent residency or citizenship as national security concerns. Immigrant rights advocates then filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to force U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to turn over more information about it, the lawsuit said. The agency doesn't have the authority to, one, impose its own requirements, and, two, impose them in a secret program on people who aren't even aware of them. Congress has laid out the requirements for these programs, Matt Adams, legal director of the Seattle-based Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, said Thursday. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

brother luciano: As the 40th anniversary of the boy's death approaches, academics and advocates are meeting this week to share how it changed Toronto a ripple effect that touched sex workers, the LGBT community and the landscape of Yonge Street itself, according to CBC. The shoeshine boy A familiar face at Yonge and Dundas streets, Emanuel was often seen there shining the shoes of passersby with his brother Luciano. That all changed in the summer of 1977, following the brutal sexual assault and murder of 12-year-old shoeshine boy Emanuel Jaques. The brothers used their collective earnings to help their parents support them and the five siblings with whom they'd left Portugal 3 years earlier. Instead, Betesh, Robert Kribs and Joseph Woods were involved in tying Emanuel up, sexually assaulting him and then drowning him in a sink at Charlie's Angels massage parlour, according to evidence presented in court in the winter of 1978. Emanuel thought he could earn a little more on July 28, 1977, when Saul David Betesh offered him 35 to move photography equipment. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

geo group: They are challenging it in federal court and have won the right to sue the Denver-area detention centre 's operator on behalf of an estimated 60,000 people held there over a decade, according to Metro News. The former detainees allege the GEO Group is exploiting people in the 1,500-bed centre to keep it operating with just one full-time janitor. Some also volunteer to do jobs as varied as landscaping, more cleaning and cutting other inmates' hair, but the pay is always the same 1 a day.A group of former detainees says the system borders on modern-day slavery. The company reported 2.2 billion in revenue and had nearly 163 million in adjusted net income last year. Immigration detention centres are roughly the equivalent of jails in the criminal justice system places where people accused of civil violations of immigration law wait until their cases are resolved. The case could have broad consequences for the private prison industry, which hopes to cash in on demand for more detention space as the Trump administration cracks down on illegal immigration. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

immigration minister: The changes are not a complete overhaul of the stringent citizenship regimen established by the Conservative government in 2014, though they relax the age requirement for language and knowledge tests, and the length of residency requirement, according to Toronto Star. While citizenship officers will keep their powers to strip citizenship from new Canadians in cases of fraud and misrepresentation, and individuals convicted of crimes will be barred from being granted citizenship, the Federal Court, instead of the immigration minister, will be the decision-maker in all revocation cases. Mathew McCarthy / Waterloo Region Record file photo By Nicholas Keung Immigration reporter Thu., June 22, 2017 Ottawa has passed citizenship changes that critics say strike the right balance between removing barriers for immigrants to become full Canadians and protecting the integrity of the system. The Liberals also immediately repealed a law put in place their Tory predecessor that gave Ottawa the power to strip citizenship from naturalized citizens for crimes committed after citizenship has already been granted something critics said created two distinct classes of citizens, those born here and abroad. The government has followed through on its promise to restore citizenship equality for all Canadians. We are thrilled that after more than three years of fighting, multiple lawsuits, and over a year of wrangling in Parliament, second-class citizenship has been put to an end, said Josh Paterson of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

immigration rules: He said his administration would be putting in legislation to that effect very shortly, according to CTV. It is unclear, however, how Trump's proposal would change the current situation. Trump said at a rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that the time has come for new immigration rules that would require those seeking admission to the country to be able to support themselves financially and would bar the use of welfare for a period of at least five years. U.S. immigration law already bars most foreigners who enter the country on immigrant visas from being eligible for federal benefits like Social Security and food stamps for the first five years. Foreigners with non-immigrant visas and those who don't have legal status are generally prohibited from those benefits altogether. States typically have the authority to determine eligibility for local programs. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

indian food: Only at my house, we just called it food, according to Toronto Star. Fast forward a generation, and my children's culinary experience is completely different to my own. Bernard Weil / Toronto Star file photo By Uzma Jalaluddin Special to the Star Thu., June 22, 2017 I grew up eating Indian food. The Indian staples my husband and I grew up with are the exception in our household, not the norm.I started thinking about this because it's Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting and spiritual reset. My kids are fasting a few days, mostly on weekends, and our experiences are completely different. The fasts are long more than 17 hours in Toronto which leaves me with a lot of time to contemplate meals. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

liberties union: The lawsuit claims the government since 2008 has used the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program to blacklist thousands of applications for asylum, legal permanent residency or citizenship as national security concerns, according to CTV. The program imposes criteria on the applications that go far beyond what Congress has authorized, including holding up some applications if the applicants donated to Muslim charities or travelled to Muslim-majority countries, the complaint alleges. U.S. District Judge Richard Jones in Seattle on Wednesday denied the Justice Department's request to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed in February by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. The program was not publicly discovered until 2012, when an immigration officer discussed it during testimony in a different lawsuit. Congress has laid out the requirements for these programs, Matt Adams, legal director of the Seattle-based Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, said Thursday. Immigrant rights advocates then filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to force U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to turn over more information about it, the lawsuit said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

re-affirmation ceremony: Larry Gravill, recipient of Order of Canada and local citizenship judge, will kick off the festival as he leads a re-affirmation ceremony, according to CBC. This gives people who were born in Canada or became Canadian citizens an opportunity to affirm their commitment to Canada. In celebration of the festival's 50 years, there will be several new things happening this weekend at Victoria Park. When someone becomes a citizen, they need to take an oath, said Lucia Harrison, CEO of the Multicultural Centre in Kitchener. Also new this year will be new interactive kids activities put together by the Kitchener Public Library and the Waterloo Public Library at the kid's tent. This is really exciting because many Canadian born have never done that. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

saint john: At only 19-years-old, Mohammd Younes fled Syria on his own before moving to Canada, according to CTV. When I first came, I didn't know English, says Younes. Thousands of refugees have settled in the Maritimes in the last 18 months, but many of the newcomers still face the major hurdle of being reunited with their families. When I go out and buy something, it's still hard for me. The city welcomed 50 Syrian families in early 2016. Younes fixes bicycles at the Crescent Valley Resource Centre in Saint John. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

sunningdale road: Zhou pleaded guilty in May to impaired driving after he went through a red light at Richmond Street, travelling 188 kilometres an hour, before slamming into a car near Sunningdale Road, according to CBC. His alcohol levels showed more than double the legal limit. My words cannot describe how sorry I am, Jinghao Zhou addressed the family of Gloria Chivers, who died in the crash, Thursday through a Mandarin interpreter. Chivers, 60, was killed as she worked to deliver copies of The London Free Press. He wrote that the sudden death of his wife has brought him untold grief. Family speaks Chivers's husband Chris Chivers delivered a victim-impact statement through Crown attorney George Christakos. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

algonquin-anishinabeg nation: German Ambassador Werner Wnendt says the gesture is to remind everybody who is visiting us and there are many people, of course that this is where we are, according to CBC. This is the territory of the Algonquin people. The flags of the Algonquin-Anishinabeg Nation and the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan were installed in a special ceremony Tuesday evening, and are now a permanent fixture inside the Rockcliffe residence. Wnendt was inspired to honour area First Nations as he became familiar with their history and culture after he arrived in Canada to take his post as ambassador. CBC I came to Canada, to this great country with its multicultural population, around five years ago, and have been reaching out that's what an ambassador does, of course to people, Wnendt told host Hallie Cotnam on CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning Wednesday. Werner Wnendt is Germany's ambassador to Canada. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

american ties: And yet another described his harrowing trip from El Salvador with a smuggler who kept a pistol on his car's dashboard, just in case, according to Metro News. Not exactly the stories of typical sixth-graders. Another told how he finally left that country after he was hit in the leg by a stray bullet from a police gunfight. But this bilingual class on Long Island is hardly typical, made up almost entirely of 11-, 12- and 13-year-olds who fled street gangs in their native Central America only to wind up in a suburb that's now caught in the grip of violence from a street gang with Central American ties, MS-13. Some of the kids came as recently as October with a brother, sister or cousin, while others came with a parent. When I look back at how much I have suffered, I realize that challenges make you stronger, wrote Jocsan Hernandez, the boy struck by the stray bullet, who was among more than 20 students at East Middle School who have contributed stories to a class book titled Luchando por un mejor futuro Fighting for a Better Future . The 88-page book, handwritten in Spanish and illustrated with colorful drawings, was an end-of-year project that grew out of a classroom discussion about the students' experiences back in Central America, their immigration journeys and hopes for a better life in the United States. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

computer science: He made his way to Vancouver on the advice of a friend, according to CBC. Sabry said it was a desperate time, but things started looking up when he signed up for a coding class at the University of British Columbia. He fled his home country of Egypt during the political unrest of the Arab Spring in 2013. Vancouver app aims to connect refugees with needed services It was a stressful time in my life. UBC had a program that was trying to give people who are slightly older a crash course into computer science and they try to connect you with job and employment opportunities. I remember having to make enough money to pay for rent and school he told CBC's On The Coast on World Refugee Day. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

fever pitch: You're telling me there's not one white doctor in this whole entire building I'm not going there with all those Paki doctors, according to Toronto Star. It's tough reading these statements. YOUTUBE By Adam Kassam Wed., June 21, 2017 I'd like to see a white doctor. Even harder watching it. At first blush, one might think that this scene unfolds in a place where fear and xenophobia have reached a fever pitch. I can only imagine what one must feel in the moment being on the receiving end of such racist vitriol. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

thousands: Even considering South Sudan's history of ethnic hostility, the mass displacement was shocking, the report says, according to Metro News. As South Sudan faces its fourth year of civil war, the fighting shows no signs of ending. He and his family were among tens of thousands of people who escaped a wave of fighting in South Sudan's civil war, only to find themselves living in a filthy camp near the border with Sudan.A new report by Amnesty International says South Sudanese forces burned, shelled and ransacked homes between January and May, killing civilians and forcing thousands like Koolekheh from the Shilluk ethnic minority to flee. Both government and opposition forces have been accused of war crimes including mass rape and targeted killings, while the United Nations warns of ethnic violence. When government troops attacked his hometown of Wau Shilluk in January, Koolekheh grabbed his wife and three children and left. While the focus has been on ethnic tensions between the Dinka of President Salva Kiir and the Nuer of rebel leader Riek Machar, the new report highlights the threat to others caught in the crossfire. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

guatemalan family: Deportation threatens to break apart family in Edmonton Friends of the Guatemalan family in Edmonton called a press conference Tuesday in a desperate attempt to reverse the order, condemning the decision as unfair, according to CBC. Jilmar Picon Pineda thought he had applied to stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, after being denied refugee status in 2011. Despite pleas for compassion, their deportation dates have been set. But he said the woman who claimed to be helping his family with their application didn't file the papers. On Tuesday, Picon Pineda signed his family's removal papers at the Canada Border Services Agency office in Edmonton. Instead, she took thousands of dollars over the course of two years before disappearing in December 2016. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

island nations: Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton said U.S. State and Homeland Security Department officials should be commended for their effective work with the Australian, Papua New Guinea and Nauru governments to fulfil a promise by President Barak Obama's administration to take up to 1,250 refugees off Australia's hands, according to Metro News. There's no delay in the process, Dutton told reporters. The refugees are among hundreds of asylum seekers mostly from Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka who have been languishing for up to four years in immigration camps on the impoverished Pacific island nations of Papua New Guinea and Nauru. It's in the final stages and I'm very pleased that hopefully as soon as possible we can get people ... off the islands. Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Dutton declined to outline any details of that process or say when the first refugees were likely to leave the islands. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

legacy claimants: All legacy claimants are being asked to immediately contact the board and make any needed updates to their applications, so the board can start scheduling their hearings for September, according to Toronto Star. Those who are ready have been asked to fill out an intention to proceed form online. There are about 5,500 so-called legacy claims filed before December 15, 2012, when the former Conservative government overhauled the asylum system by introducing statutory timelines to hear new claims and expedite removals of failed claimants leaving the old cases on the back burner. We understand how difficult it is for the people to have been waiting for a minimum of four years in the legacy backlog, said Mario Dion, chair of the refugee board. This spring the board launched a legacy task force and dedicated 3 million yearly to address the legacy backlog by hiring more than 20 retired refugee judges to focus on these drawn-out cases, the majority of them filed in 2011 and 2012. Their lives and well-being are at stake and we are committed to start scheduling these cases as soon as possible. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

racism racism: While easy to castigate such offensiveness, this vulgar display is nothing compared to the more serious aspects of racism, according to Toronto Star. Racism which breaks up families, cripples generations, keeps them impoverished and continues to have deadly consequences is structural, systemic and largely invisible except to those who experience it. Overt racism still shocks people, especially those who don't experience racism themselves. Being affronted by this instance of racism in Mississauga might signify individual decency, but does not meaningfully erase complicity with benefitting from racist structures. I wrote a column attempting to peel back another the layer of bias inherent in seeking an English-speaking doctor when those at the clinic were already speaking English. Still, this is the shockwave of the moment, and openly demanding to see a white doctor is obviously racist. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

boat people: Crafted with the aid of neuroscience research and cast with boat people or their descendants, the video tells the story of a family jumping off a sinking vessel and being warmly welcomed as they begin a new life in Montreal, according to CTV. Historica Canada President Anthony Wilson-Smith says the clip encapsulates a period and a project that helped shape Canada. The short clip, now among others highlighting key moments in Canadian History, was released by Historica Canada on Tuesday and shines a light on Canada's admission of more than 100,000 refugees fleeing war-torn Vietnam in the 1970s. He says the country is a more diverse place than it was when it celebrated its centenary in 1967, adding the Heritage Minute acknowledges that increased diversity in the leadup to celebrations of Canada's 150th birthday. The arrival of the Vietnamese boat people took place against a different cultural backdrop and exemplified Canada's approach to welcoming newcomers, he said. He says the video also serves as a reminder of the value of welcoming refugees at a time when those fleeing violence in Syria look to Canada for aid and support. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

canada: We have identified 1.2 million refugees who need to be resettled, according to Metro News. It's a question of survival. Jean-Nicholas Beuze, who is based in Ottawa, told a panel Monday night, ahead of World Refugee Day Tuesday, that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR recorded the highest number of refugees ever in 2016 with 22.5 million. It's not a question of getting a better life, he said. He urged Canada to consider taking more. Do you know how many will be resettled in Canada this year 9,000. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

conflict: She visited a training centre on how to prevent sexual violence in conflict and met with refugees from conflicts in Burundi, South Sudan, Somalia and Congo, according to CTV. The reality is that women and girls as well as boys and men can still be raped with near-total impunity in conflict zones around the world, and there are still appalling cases of rape and mistreatment of vulnerable women, children and men by peacekeepers sent to protect them, she said. Jolie spoke in Kenya to mark World Refugee Day. Jolie added The horror of sexual violence is compounded when it is carried out by someone in uniform who has a taken an oath to protect. Not only have they had to flee extreme violence or persecution, lost everything and witnessed the death of family members, but they have also had to face so much abuse and intolerance and hardship. The way people treat refugees, the majority of who are women and children, is a measure of humanity, she said, according to a statement by the UN refugee agency. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

countries accounting: The number of refugees from the fledgling country, established six years ago, spiked by 64 per cent in the last six months of 2016 to over 1.4 million, the majority of them children, according to the refugee agency's annual global refugee trends report released Tuesday on World Refugee Day, according to Toronto Star. South Sudan, currently caught in a brutal ethnic war, is behind only Syria and Afghanistan in terms of the size of its refugee population, with people from those two countries accounting for 5.5 million and 2.5 million respectively of all refugees who left their homeland for safety. Ben Curtis / The Associated Press By Nicholas Keung Immigration reporter Tues., June 20, 2017 South Sudan had the world's fastest growing refugee population last year and could be the next Syria, warns a new report by the United Nations Refugee Agency. Together the three countries made up 55 per cent of the world's 65.6 million displaced people a category that includes those forced out of their homes who remain within their own country in 2016, when there were 20 new displacements every minute, said the UN report. Article Continued Below We have to do better for these people. By any measure this is an unacceptable number, and it speaks louder than ever to the need for solidarity and common purpose in preventing and resolving crises, and ensuring together that the world's refugees, internally displaced and asylum-seekers are properly protected and cared for while solutions are pursued, Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees, said in a statement. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

countries need: But, with more than 65 million people forcibly displaced worldwide representing a new post-Second World War record -- wealthy countries need to do more to help, Beuze told CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview from Ottawa, according to CTV. Canada did extremely well last year by resettling many, mainly Syrian, refugees, Beuze said Tuesday, noting that refugees have seen huge support from local communityand faith-based organizations. On World Refugee Day, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR representative Jean-Nicolas Beuze said Canada has done its fair share of resettling refugees, especially with more recent efforts to welcome Syrian refugees. Earlier this year, the UNHCR praised Canada for resettling 46,700 refugees in 2016, a record number since 1978, when the Immigration Act came into effect. But Beuze said that 1.2 million people worldwide are in immediate need of resettlement, and Canada's refugee intake target for 2017 will accommodate only a small fraction. And according to UNHCR's latest global trends report, more than 97,000 people recognized by the UN as refugees were living in Canada at the end of 2016. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

country agreement: But data obtained Tuesday by The Canadian Press shows people are still being granted asylum under the much-maligned Safe Third Country Agreement, long blamed for driving the number of border arrests to record highs, according to The Chronicle Herald. When U.S. President Donald Trump's travel ban was first announced, while the NDP called for action, the prime minister tweeted, 'Hashtag Welcome To Canada,' said NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan. Among other things, both the Conservatives and the NDP urged the government to examine the Canada-U.S. border, where upwards of 3,000 people have been arrested since January crossing between legal points of entry in order to claim asylum. We have recently learned that a 57-year-old woman lost her life attempting to cross the border into Manitoba. The Safe Third Country Agreement prohibits people from making an asylum claim at the U.S.-Canada land border, on the basis that those in need of protection must make the claim in the first safe country they arrive in. If the prime minister's hopeful words were matched with real action such as suspending the Safe Third Country Agreement, a life might have been saved. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

emergency aid: Most of the refugees are women and children, the reason UNICEF is calling the refugee influx a children's crisis, according to The Chronicle Herald. More than one million children have been forced from their homes in South Sudan, often amid horrific violence, said Leila Pakkala, a UNICEF official in the region. In a statement on World Refugee Day, the U.N. children's fund said the money is needed for emergency aid as well as resilience interventions targeting both refugees and host communities over the next four years. Day after day, week after week, they are being received by countries such as Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya. UNICEF in Uganda requires nearly 50 million in 2017 as well as 30 million each year from 2018 to 2020 to provide critical services, including education and child protection, to both refugees and host communities, the UNICEF statement said. Despite great efforts on many fronts, the systems in these countries are tremendously stretched. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.