claims: In all of 2016, there were just 241, statistics from the IRB show, according to Brandon Sun. Last December, the Liberal government lifted a requirement for Mexicans to obtain a visa before travelling to Canada and an increase in claims was forecast. New figures from the Immigration and Refugee Board show that March recorded the highest number yet of new claims in 2017 110, up from 85 in February and 71 in January, for a total of 266 so far this year. The volume of asylum seekers from Mexico had been the reason the previous government begin to require visas in 2009, but the move caused diplomatic bad blood between the two countries. Still, in lifting the visa, Canada told the Mexican government that if asylum claims reached a certain level, the visa could be reinstated. The federal Liberals had promised to remove the requirement and doing so was given new impetus given the impending renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

exorbitantly-priced suits: Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron wears suits that cost about 350 euros 370 from a small Parisian retailer, according to Brandon Sun. Whether political calculation or lucky coincidence, the move nicely contrasts with scandal-hit conservative candidate Francois Fillon, accused of elitism for exorbitantly-priced suits paid for by donors, including 13,000 euros 13,800 for two recent suits. With unemployment and economic woes topping voter concerns ahead of France's two-round April 23-May 7 presidential vote, candidates have vied for the most on-message branding. Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen favourssombre suits as she evokes threats against France and takes a hard line on security and immigration. And car factory worker Philippe Poutou, a far-left candidate who took just five weeks off work to run for president, stole the show at the last presidential debate with his messy hair, baggy sweater and sharp tongue that made him look like an Average Joe speaking truth to power. On the other end of the political spectrum, far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon cultivates a tie-free image in an election shaped by anti-establishment sentiment and jackets that evoke communist leaders. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

voting age: Sainz favours a bill in the California Legislature that would lower the voting age to 17, which she thinks would give a voice to more people affected by the outcome of elections, according to Brandon Sun. Looking at all the protests throughout this year throughout all the high schools across the nation, we could see a lot of the minors were protesting because they felt as if they didn't have a voice, said Sainz, a senior at Inderkum High School in Sacramento. She was also upset that she couldn't do anything about it at the ballot box because she was a year shy of being able to vote. Lawmakers in more than a dozen states are trying to increase voter participation by targeting young people. While Republican-leaning states have moved to tighten voting rules nearly 90 such bills have been introduced those efforts have been outstripped by the number of bills seeking to expand access to the polls. Their bills are among nearly 500 pieces of legislation introduced around the country this year to make voting easier, according to a March analysis by New York University's Brennan Center for Justice. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

year sentence: Sosa Orantes, 59, is now serving a 10-year sentence for immigration fraud in the United States, where he also held citizenship until it was revoked in 2014, according to Brandon Sun. Canada has opted to strip citizenship in only a handful of modern-day war crimes cases. Jorge Vinicio Sosa Orantes concealed his brutal role in a 1982 massacre by the Guatemalan military in obtaining Canadian citizenship a decade later, the federal government says in newly filed court documents. The bloody, decades-long conflict between Guatemalan government forces and guerrillas intensified in the early 1980s. The army would typically circle a village, seal it off, gather the people and separate men and women before killing villagers. The military junta began a ruthless campaign of destruction that wiped out 440 villages, killing over 75,000 people and displacing more than 250,000, the Canadian government says in documents filed in Federal Court. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

ahmadshah afghan: He can't be any more precise because he was born in Afghanistan, where birth dates don't have the same cultural importance as in Canada and most other countries, and are often forgotten, according to CBC. Ahmadshah Malgarai's Afghan national ID says he was born in 1976, four years later than the date on his Canadian passport. I feel like I am in my 40's, Malgarai smiles. Steve Fischer/CBC Even if you ask the older generation in Afghanistan, 'OK, what year are we in now ' they won't know, he said. He arrived alone as a refugee in his late teens or early 20's, sent here by his parents to find a better life. There's one date Malgarai is sure of the year he came to Canada, 1993. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

canadian letters: Despite or perhaps, because of its woolly downtown, rheumatic shoreline and pockmarked history, Hamilton is vastly interesting, according to Hamilton Spectator. Toronto with a fever and the sweats. Although regarded, at least by down-the-nose Torontonians, as a greaser with a knife in its cuff a sentiment blithely echoed by Hamilton legend Tom Wilson, who has said that his city was punk rock before punk existed Lake Ontario's Steeltown finds itself rounding into a vanguard of new expression. While the works of Salvatore DiFalco, David Collier and others have mined these veins, it's still a place largely unwritten about in Canadian letters. Cole tells the story of ambitious mobster and bootlegger Rocco Perri small, stocky, social and quietly fearsome and the man who pursued him, a resolute and self-hating Italian immigrant named Frank Zaneth, regarded as the RCMP's first undercover operative. Another artist who has identified the city's narrative protein is Trevor Cole, whose recent book, The Whisky King The remarkable true story of Canada's most infamous bootlegger and the undercover Mountie on his trail, dives into an era when Hamilton was a bootlegging hub, filled with rounders, ghouls and thugs. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

i texted: On Friday, Bayer was out viewing potential homes and texted a phone number for an ad listed on Kijiji, according to CTV. The response he got back stunned him. He never expected to get questions about his race. They seemed OK, the little conversation we had before, but then the question came if we were Native, said Bayer. I texted back, Does it matter ' he said. At first, Bayer said he didn't know how to respond, but the question angered him. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

pieces: At the same time, a proposal to create stricter rules surrounding drunk driving was tabled, according to CTV. If it passes Parliament, it will be one of the strongest impaired driving pieces of legislation in the world, said Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould. On Thursday, the federal government introduced legislation legalizing cannabis. The changes would allow law enforcement officers to demand breath samples from any driver they lawfully stop, without having suspicion that the driver has alcohol in their body. When we get into the driver's seat of a vehicle, we're not doing away with all of our rights as a citizen. Criminal defence lawyer Sarah Leamon believes that violates a section of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that protests against unreasonable searches or seizures. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

question period: That means doing face-to-face interviews, based on the Senate standing committee report published in 2015, that recommends that we do face-to-face interviews, Leitch said, according to CTV. Asked if that included visitors as well as immigrants and refugees, something she has said repeatedly, she suggested visitors would be excluded. In an interview with Evan Solomon, host of CTV's Question Period, Leitch said she wants to do the process properly. We meet individual visitors, tourists, at the border already. Anyone entering Canada at an official border crossing has to go through a border official. And there are some we do more extensive background checks on, she said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

transports readers: It's a tonic for busyness, a recipe for meditation, an exercise in small pleasures, in joy, according to Hamilton Spectator. Lisa See's wonderful new novel The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane shares many of these same properties. The ritual of preparing it carefully choosing the leaves, heating the water to an exact temperature, steeping the brew in a cherished pot, and then savouring every soothing sip proves both restorative and transformative. The bestselling author's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Peony in Love latest transports readers to an ancient hill tribe in the mountains of China, as its heroine Li-yan confronts the forces of modernity. The family business is tea, and they harvest some of the best in the world. Li-yan and her family belong to the Akha ethnic minority, who have long lived in harmony with nature, in a village on the remote Nannuo Mountain in Yunnan Province. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

aid: Chris Coons of Delaware told The Associated Press on Saturday that the U.S. can deliver more food aid at less cost through foreign food aid reform, according to Brandon Sun. The United States spent roughly 2.8 billon in foreign food aid last year and is the world's largest provider of humanitarian assistance. Following a visit to the world's largest refugee settlement in northern Uganda with the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Sen. But current regulations require most food aid to be grown in the U.S. and shipped under an American flag. Bob Corker of Tennessee told the AP. We have people coming over the border from South Sudan . They need food. It's taken in some cases six months for those products to actually get here, Republican Sen. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

athens: They won't mind staying up late in Athens to watch, according to Hamilton Spectator. Same goes for plenty of other places around the world at this time of year. Except in Greece, where it'll already be very early Sunday morning. All eight of the NBA first-round playoff series that start this weekend have international players involved, meaning the game's global reach will be on full display once again. I grew up in Athens not having much, Antetokounmpo said earlier this season. And as NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said at the All-Star break, the league expects the international players to keep coming. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

authorities: Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Friday that 55-year-old Sergio Alonso Lopez was the sixth immigration detainee to die in custody since October, according to Metro News. Lopez was arrested by immigration agents in February and held at a privately run detention facility in Adelanto. Federal authorities say a Mexican man held in immigration custody in Southern California has died from internal bleeding. Immigration authorities say he had a series of medical issues including cirrhosis of the liver and was taken to the hospital April 1 after he vomited blood. Immigration authorities say Lopez was deported to Mexico three times since 1994 and had prior felony convictions for burglary and drug possession. Authorities say he died late Thursday and they have notified the Mexican consulate of his death. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

canadian politicians: She drew tears to their eyes, according to The Chronicle Herald. Malala Yousafzai, the passionate 19-year-old who was shot by the Taliban on her way home from school in Pakistan five years ago, brought Canadian politicians from both sides of the aisle to their feet even as she provoked them, eye to eye, to do so much more for the education of girls around the world. She joked. The granting of honorary Canadian citizenship to the young Nobel prize winner on Wednesday reminded MPs why they chose to run for office, prompting corridor conversations about their common goals. The ground shifted in federal politics this week, first with a quick and dramatic reshaping of global power in the wake of the U.S. bombing of a Syrian airfield, and then at a domestic level when the Liberals introduced legislation to make marijuana legal. Malala was a momentary respite. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

canadian-born father: Five years after graduating from Gannon University and following a stint in the NFL with Buffalo Bills, the 26-year-old defensive lineman has obtained Canadian citizenship and been added to the 2017 CFL draft class, according to Hamilton Spectator. Colling is latest beneficiary of a 2014 CFL rule change that allows players with Canadian citizenship to qualify for national status, regardless of where they were born. And now, courtesy of a rule change and an Arena League coach with keen eye, he's set to play in the CFL as a Canadian. With a Canadian-born father, Colling has applied for and been granted dual-citizenship. I remembered seeing the article about how Garrett Waggoner got his Canadian citizenship and they had contacted the Minister of Sport up there and got their process expedited, Selesky says. It was Ron Selesky, Colling's coach with Cleveland in the Arena League and a former U.S. scout with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who realized the big defender should be looking north of the border. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

court order: The attorney general's name was added to the list in a court filing Wednesday night, according to Metro News. On Thursday night, U. S. District Judge Susan Bolton set new dates for Arpaio's bench trial June 26-30 and July 5-7. Jack Wilenchik, one of Arpaio's attorneys, said Sessions' testimony would underscore a contradiction between current federal immigration policy and the 2011 court order that his client is charged with violating. It had had been scheduled to begin April 25, but Bolton reluctantly agreed Wednesday to the delay after Arpaio's lead attorney quit the case last week. Arpaio, 84, faces the misdemeanour contempt charge for letting his immigration patrols continue after a judge in a racial profiling case had ordered them stopped. Other lawyers who recently joined his legal team said they didn't have enough time to properly prepare for the trial. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

donald defreeze: Guerrilla, a Showtime miniseries debuting Sunday, extends his willingness to take on thorny political and social issues and his insistence on giving each stakeholder a chance to be heard, according to The Chronicle Herald. The drama also allowed Ridley, a self-described child of the '70s, to revisit his youthful, unshaded admiration for American radicals such as George Jackson of the Black Panther Party and Donald DeFreeze, known as Cinque when he led the Symbionese Liberation Army militia group that kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst. The writer, director and producer works a big canvas and does it thoughtfully, whether in his Oscar-winning screenplay for 12 Years a Slave, his ABC anthology series American Crime or his new drama about England's 1970s black power movement. As a young black man, they were just cool. But maturity and reflection gave him a different perspective on violent radicalism and its proponents, he said. They were icons of the movement, Ridley said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

flight risk: Graham Hughes / THE CANADIAN PRESS By Giuseppe Valiante The Canadian Press Thu., April 13, 2017 MONTREAL A man who was charged with killing his wife will remain detained by the border services agency while he appeals a deportation order, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada ruled Thursday, according to Toronto Star. Immigration board member Stephane Morin said Sivaloganathan Thanabalasingam remains a flight risk and a danger to the public. He will remain detained by the border services agency while he appeals a deportation order. Thanabalasingam, 31, arrived in Canada as a refugee from Sri Lanka in 2004, and recently became the first person in Quebec to not have murder charges against him proceeded with due to unreasonable delays in the justice system. Thanabalasingam is appealing that decision, which could take years to be heard. Despite the stay of proceedings, Canada Border Services Agency arrested him before he was officially released on the murder allegation and Canada's immigration and refugee board ordered him deported to his country of origin. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

immigration detention: The GEO Group said that its 1,000-bed detention facility will be in Conroe, north of Houston, and will open by the end of next year, according to Metro News. The facility coincides with President Donald Trump's promised expansion of immigration detention, part of a larger crackdown on immigrants in the country illegally that includes detaining people seeking asylum while they go through immigration proceedings.U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement already has a record of more than 41,000 detainees. Her name is Silky Shah, not Shaw.A corrected version of the story is below Texas getting first immigrant centre built under Trump Private prison company GEO Group has announced a 110 million federal contract to build the first new immigrant detention centre under the Trump administration By MEREDITH HOFFMANAssociated PressA private prison company announced Thursday it has won a 110-million federal contract to build in Texas the first new immigrant detention centre under the Trump administration. The agency has also identified an additional 21,000 unused beds that it plans to use for detention, according to a memo reported Wednesday by the Washington Post. GEO, ICE's second-largest private prison contractor, has approximately 3,000 empty beds nationwide, according to a February investor call. That memo notes that ICE will be unable to secure additional detention capacity until funding has been identified. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

jewish family: That means I was hired as a non-Jew to take care of work that Jewish religious law prohibits adherents from taking care of themselves on the Sabbath, according to Hamilton Spectator. During the days leading up to Passover which this year ends on Tuesday night I was engaged with zeal in dishwashing, housecleaning and food prep with the women as they switched over to the special dishes used only on these holy days. However, the one PT gig I recall with the most favour this time of year is my role as a Shabbos goy for a Jewish family. Once Pesach officially started, I was often on my own in the kitchen, especially the first two nights when the Seder meal would be eaten. It is one of the positions I had in life that will impact my whole being till my dying days. On those nights, I would lean in tightly to hear the words of the Haggadah through the closed door to the dining room where that and the other 13 steps of the ordered ritual were underway. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

landmark initiative: He was 84, according to Toronto Star. The team announced his death but details were not immediately available. Don Wright / The Associated Press By Barry Wilner The Associated Press Thu., April 13, 2017 Dan Rooney, the powerful and popular Pittsburgh Steelers chairman whose name is attached to the NFL's landmark initiative in minority hiring, died Thursday. Rooney took over operation of the team in the 1960s from his father, Art, who founded the franchise. He was a powerful force within the league. From there, Dan Rooney oversaw NFL championships for a team that had never even played in an NFL title game. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

minute-long procession: After the 90-minute-long procession ended, Francis, in a quiet voice, read a prayer he composed that alternated expressing shame for humanity's failings and hope that hardened hearts will become capable of forgiving and loving, according to CTV. With Easter two days away, Francis said faithful look to Christ with eyes lowered in shame and with hearts full of hope. Francis, wearing a plain white coat, presided over the traditional, evening Way of the Cross procession from a rise overlooking the popular tourist monument as faithful took turns carrying a tall cross and meditations were recited to encourage reflection on Jesus' suffering and crucifixion. Such shame, he said, derives from all those images of devastation, destruction, shipwrecks, that have become routine in our lives. Evoking wars and conflicts, as well as attacks on Christian minorities, Francis also voiced shame for the innocent blood spilled daily by women, children, immigrants, and persons persecuted because of the colour of their skin, or for the ethnic or social group they belong to, and for their faith in Jesus. Hundreds of thousands of migrants have endured hardships at the hands of human traffickers to try to reach Europe, which has increasingly been rejecting them, and thousands of them have perished at sea during the last few years. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

population transfer: OMAR HAJ KADOUR / AFP/Getty Images By Philip Issa The Associated Press Fri., April 14, 2017 BEIRUT Thousands of Syrians were bused out of their towns on Friday in the first stage of a widely criticized population transfer that reflects the relentless segregation of Syrian society along political and sectarian lines, according to Toronto Star. The co-ordinated evacuations delivered war-weary fighters and residents from two years of siege and hunger, but moved the country closer to a division of its national population by loyalty and sect. GEORGE OURFALIAN / AFP/Getty Images Syrians onboard a bus coming from government-held Fuaa and Kafraya arrive in rebel-held Rashidin, west of Aleppo city, as part of an evacuation deal, on April 14, 2017. As diplomacy in Moscow focused on the U.S. airstrikes targeting Syria, more than 2,350 people were bused out of the twin rebel-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani near Damascus, and another 5,000 from the pro-government towns of Foua and Kfraya in the country's north. We left so that God willing the siege may ease on those who remain, said Ahmad Afandar, a 19-year-old evacuee from Madaya whose parents stayed behind. Read more Trump's Syria strike intensifies tensions with Russia, highlights questions of his foreign policy There was no heating, no food, nothing to sustain our lives. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

syrian families: As newcomers learn English and integrate into the workforce, New Brunswickers are also learning more about Arabic and Syrian culture, according to UNB College of Extended Learning program assistant Sandy Mac Kay, according to CBC. I kept getting calls from people who were working with newcomers asking if we offered Arabic, he said. Submitted by Sandy Mac Kay The arrival of hundreds of Syrian families since 2015 has presented an opportunity for cultural exchange on a scale rarely seen in New Brunswick. He lined up qualified Arabic-English translator Lina Gharbiya as an instructor, and advertised the course a dozen people showed up for the very first class. Usually it takes a while to get a new class going, Mac Kay said. The warm response was unusual. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

war-weary fighters: As diplomacy in Moscow focused on the U.S. airstrikes targeting Syria, more than 2,350 people were bused out of the twin rebel-held towns of Madaya and Zabadani near Damascus, and another 5,000 from the pro-government towns of Foua and Kfraya in the country's north, according to Brandon Sun. There was no heating, no food, nothing to sustain our lives. The co-ordinated evacuations delivered war-weary fighters and residents from two years of siege and hunger, but moved the country closer to a division of its national population by loyalty and sect. We left so that God willing the siege may ease on those who remain, said Ahmad Afandar, a 19-year-old evacuee from Madaya whose parents stayed behind. The two towns rebelled against Damascus' authority in 2011 when demonstrations swept through the country demanding the end of President Bashar Assad's rule. Madaya and Zabadani, once summer resorts to Damascus, have been shattered under the cruelty of government siege. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.

canada catchphrase: Yousafzai praised Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's welcome to Canada catchphrase, which many Tory candidates say sends the wrong message to asylum-seekers who want to enter Canada at non-official border crossings, according to Globe and Mail. Your motto and your stand welcome to Canada' is more than a headline or a hashtag. In her speech in the Commons, Ms. It is the spirit of humanity that every single one of us would yearn for if our family was in crisis, Ms. I pray that you continue to open your homes and your hearts to the world's most defenceless children and families, and I hope your neighbours will follow your example. Yousafzai, 19, said. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.