What Stops ICE from Crossing into Canada to Snatch People? Very Little |
Late last month, New Brunswick premier Susan Holt told media that American Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were at the Calais, Maine, border along New Brunswick. She described the situation as “very, very uncomfortable” for people with cross-border family and business ties, leaving the impression of a United States immigration crackdown spilling into neighbouring communities.
Later the same day, Holt clarified her remarks, distancing herself from claims that ICE was operating near the Canada–US line. But the episode tapped into broader anxiety about the unrestrained and often brutal tactics the agency has used against immigrant communities in blue states—an unease sharpened by reports that ICE maintains field offices in five Canadian cities. ICE’s presence in Canada is limited to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents based at US embassies and consulates. ICE told the CBC that agents investigate transnational crime with Canadian partners but carry no firearms and have no authority to arrest, raid, or enforce US immigration law here.
To better understand how Canadians should think about this relationship, given what ICE has become in the US, I decided to reach out to Kent Roach, a leading Canadian constitutional law scholar at the University of Toronto, known for his work on national security, policing, and Charter rights.
The following interview, conducted over Zoom, has been condensed and edited.
Here’s a scenario: Minnesota shares a border with Canada. Let’s say a stream of undocumented people decided to make a run for Sprague, Manitoba. Let’s say they somehow end up on the other side. ICE isn’t happy about it, and, on this day, agents decide to ignore the fact there’s a border.
It would be an invasion of Canadian sovereignty if they’re coming onto our soil and snatching people. The other thing I think Canadians should know is something I have called American extra-legalism. It’s what appears to have happened with Ryan Wedding, where they go and they snatch someone from a foreign country—arrest him and extradite him without any judicial process, extra judicially, as it were. The US Supreme Court said that’s perfectly legal under American law. The law authorizes extra-legal arrests and extradition, and a snatching victim cannot even sue. A Canadian or a British court would have a big problem exercising jurisdiction over that person; American courts don’t, and that was long before President Donald Trump stacked the US Supreme Court.
And say they did snatch someone? What happens next?
Again, I think the American courts would have no problem with it. It would be up to Canada whether we would expend our limited capital with the US in protesting it and serving a diplomatic note. There will be a political and economic price if Canada followed member of Parliament Heather McPherson’s call for all ICE out of Canada—we will find out whether the Mark Carney government is willing to pay the price. I doubt it.
Has anything like this happened before?
We can look at the........