Ottawa has duty to ensure welfare of Canadians in ICE custody, advocates say

Globe and Mail

a day ago

The growing number of Canadian citizens detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is disturbing and raises questions about whether Ottawa is doing enough to ensure the well-being of Canadians in custody, experts say, after revelations that Canadian children as young as two years old have been held for weeks in immigration detention this year.
The Globe and Mail on Thursday published extensive analysis of American enforcement data revealing that 149 Canadian citizens have been held at some point in ICE custody since January, when President Donald Trump took office and ordered an expansive immigration crackdown.
Two Canadian toddlers were held for weeks at a remote Texas facility that is at the centre of a court case alleging inadequate access to safe drinking water, medical care and legal assistance. One of the children was held for 51 days – more than double the legal detention period for migrant children in the United States.
Citing privacy, Global Affairs Canada has not commented on what, exactly, it is doing to ensure Canadian detainees are being held in safe conditions and have access to due process.
However, Charlotte MacLeod, a spokesperson for the department, said that 'Canadian officials maintain regular engagement with U.S. counterparts related to Canadians in immigration-related detention.'
Ms. MacLeod told The Globe this week that Ottawa cannot 'ask for special treatment for citizens, try to spare them from the due process of local law or overrule the decisions of local authorities.'
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Julia Sande, a lawyer with Amnesty International Canada's English-speaking section, said The Globe's findings are 'horrifying and deeply disturbing.' She said the Canadian government's comments are cause for significant concern.
'What does due process look like for a toddler?' she said. 'Canada can say it can't interfere in other countries, but what steps is Canada taking to ensure that its citizens, including its toddler citizens' rights are being upheld?' she said.
The anonymized ICE data analyzed by The Globe are current to the end of July and disclose details about thousands of detention cases dating back to 2023, including detainees' nationality, year of birth, time in custody and the reason for the detention.
The information was obtained through a federal district-court lawsuit against ICE brought by the Deportation Data Project, which is run by a group of academics and lawyers in the U.S.
The Globe's analysis showed that, as of the end of July, 56 Canadians arrested this year were still in ICE detention. Over all, the number of Canadians arrested by ICE so far in 2025 is on pace to double that of last year.
Sharry Aiken, a professor at Queen's University Faculty of Law, said the use of immigration detention in the U.S. has long been concerning, but the Trump administration has introduced a 'dramatic intensification' of the practice.
That includes detaining long-time residents of the United States.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of public affairs at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, had told The Globe in a statement that: 'Allegations of subprime conditions at these facilities are FALSE.'
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In June, Johnny Noviello, a 49-year-old Canadian man who had lived in the United States as a permanent resident for decades, died while in ICE custody. He was detained at his probation office two years after being convicted of several drug-related offences.
'There's a heightened responsibility for the Canadian government to stand up and take notice, because the government has an obligation to protect its citizens,' Prof. Aiken said.
In countries that are party to the United Nations Vienna Convention on Consular Relations − including Canada and the United States − arresting authorities must advise detainees of their right to access consular representation from their home country.
According to the Canadian government's consular affairs service standards, Canadian consular officials are typically notified of an arrest or detention of a Canadian abroad. Consular officials will 'take steps to initiate contact' with the individual within one working day of learning of the detention, the standards document says.
Officials will increase the frequency of their contact if the Canadian detainee is deemed to be particularly vulnerable, including in situations where Ottawa has concerns about human-rights violations, according to the service standard.
Ottawa human-rights lawyer Paul Champ said that although there may be standards on paper, consular assistance for Canadian detainees abroad is, in his experience representing Canadians detained abroad, inconsistent, opaque and influenced by the politics between the two countries in question.
'These reports of the conditions of confinement are quite appalling, and Canada should be seriously concerned about that and taking action,' he said.
NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson said she was concerned to learn of The Globe's findings, including the 'illegal and inhumane' detention of one of the Canadian toddlers for more than seven weeks.
The little girl was detained in late May at the South Texas Family Residential Center, and appears to have been detained with a Bolivian woman and another child, who was born in 2019 and also has Bolivian citizenship.
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The Bolivian woman was picked up for an immigration violation and does not have a criminal record. They were granted a conditional release from detention in mid-July to await a decision on their expedited-removal case.
The ICE data show that another Canadian child, born in 2022, was also detained in early May. The boy appears to have been detained with a Congolese woman for almost four days in an ICE hold room near the Canadian border. At the time, these sites were meant for detentions of under 12 hours. The policy has since changed to 72 hours.
The Congolese woman was picked up for an immigration violation and does not have a criminal record. The pair were then transferred to the South Texas facility where they remained in custody for more than two weeks. They were subsequently released on a supervision order.
A suite of legal protections known as the Flores Settlement Agreement requires migrant children to be released from government custody after no more than 20 days in detention. The White House is currently seeking to terminate the agreement.
'We call on the Liberal government to tell President Trump in no uncertain terms: These are human-rights violations and violations of due process, and this is unacceptable,' said Ms. McPherson. 'It is clear the United States under President Trump is no longer a safe place for many, including Canadians.'