Canada deports 19,000 immigrants in 2025 amid tighter visa rules

CBSA data shows nearly 19,000 removals in 2025 as fewer people entered Canada and the population posted its steepest fall since 1946

Canada removed a record number of foreign nationals in 2025, according to the latest year-in-review data from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), as the country recorded its sharpest population decline since the end of the Second World War.

 

CBSA data updated through October 31, 2025, shows 18,785 forced removals during the calendar year, including 8,982 deportations. The agency’s December year-end figures put total removals slightly higher at 18,969 once November and December activity is included.

 

The removals came even as Canada saw fewer people entering the country overall. More than 70 million legitimate travellers crossed the border in 2025, a fall of 12% from the previous year.

 

What drove record removals in a year of population decline

 

Of the 18,785 removals recorded up to October 31, deportation orders formed the largest share.

 

The CBSA data shows:

 

8,982 deportation orders

5,821 exclusion orders

3,982 departure orders

 

This marked a clear rise from previous years. Canada recorded 17,357 removals across all of 2024 and 15,207 in 2023.

 

Enforcement activity remained high throughout the year. Quarterly data shows 5,654 removals in the first quarter, 5,400 in the second, 6,478 in the third, and 1,253 in the first month of the fourth quarter.

 

Within the total, 841 cases involved serious inadmissibility grounds, including national security threats, organised crime, human rights violations and criminality.

 

CBSA also reported broader screening and prevention activity alongside removals:

 

< 35,608 people were turned back at US land borders after being found inadmissible

< Security screening was completed for 61,960 asylum claimants

< Liaison officers abroad intervened in 5,889 cases to stop passengers boarding flights with invalid documents

 

What do deportation orders mean under Canadian law

 

Deportation orders represent the most severe form of removal under Canadian immigration law. In 2025, 8,982 such orders were issued up to October, compared with 6,936 in 2024.

 

These orders bar a person from returning to Canada indefinitely unless they receive special authorisation.

 

Quarter-wise, deportation orders broke down as follows:

 

2,790 in Q1

2,525 in Q2

3,018 in Q3

649 in the first month of Q4

 

They accounted for nearly half of all removals recorded in the detailed data.

 

Deportation orders are generally issued in cases involving criminal convictions or repeated violations of immigration conditions. Recent high-profile cases, including those involving serious criminal allegations by individuals seeking refugee protection, have fuelled public debate around border controls and enforcement standards.

 

CBSA has said in the past that each case is assessed individually, though critics have raised concerns about consistency and transparency in decision-making.

 

How other removal orders work in Canada

 

Not all removals involve permanent bans.

 

Departure orders, which totalled 3,982 in 2025, require a person to leave Canada within 30 days. If they fail to do so, the order automatically becomes a deportation order.

 

Exclusion orders, numbering 5,821, bar re-entry for a fixed period of one to five years. These are often issued for misrepresentation or lesser forms of non-compliance.

 

In the 2024–25 fiscal year, CBSA issued 4,570 departure orders and 5,665 exclusion orders, showing a continued reliance on graduated enforcement rather than deportation alone.

 

Where were removals concentrated in 2025

 

Removals varied sharply by region.

 

In calendar year 2025, Quebec recorded the highest number, followed by Ontario’s major urban centres.

 

Regional totals show:

 

Quebec: 8,450

Greater Toronto Area: 5,847

Pacific region: 1,780

Prairie region: 1,246

Southern Ontario: 859

Northern Ontario: 455

Atlantic region: 148

 

Financial-year data for 2025–26 shows a similar pattern, with Quebec again leading at 6,098 removals, followed by the Greater Toronto Area with 3,988.

 

Officials and researchers often link these concentrations to high volumes of asylum claims and temporary residents in Quebec and Ontario, as well as major ports of entry and urban housing pressures.

 

Why were people removed from Canada

 

Under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, removals are issued for defined grounds of inadmissibility.

 

In 2025, non-compliance was the dominant reason.

 

CBSA data shows:

 

15,605 removals of refugee claimants for non-compliance

2,065 removals of non-claimants for non-compliance

734 removals for criminality

117 for transborder criminality

79 for organised crime

122 for misrepresentation

36 for cessation of status

27 under other grounds

 

Most non-compliance cases involved people who overstayed visas, breached permit conditions or failed to leave after receiving a removal order.

 

How population decline and tighter immigration rules intersected

 

The rise in removals coincided with a rare fall in Canada’s population.

 

Statistics Canada data released in December shows the population fell by about 76,000 people, or 0.18%, in the third quarter of 2025, bringing the total to just under 41.6 million. It was the largest quarterly decline since 1946.

 

The agency linked the drop to fewer arrivals of non-permanent residents, following government moves to restrict international student and temporary worker numbers.

 

The last comparable population fall was recorded at the end of 2020, when pandemic-related border restrictions were in place.

 

Canada’s immigration policy shift has unfolded over the past year. In 2022, the government under former prime minister Justin Trudeau announced plans to admit nearly 1.5 million immigrants between 2023 and 2025 to address labour shortages. Around 1.2 million have arrived so far.

 

Public concern over housing shortages, strained public services and cost-of-living pressures led the government to cut immigration targets in October 2024 for 2026 and 2027.

 

The impact has been visible in education and labour markets. Government data shows study permits issued fell by almost 74,000 between July and September 2025, mainly in Ontario and British Columbia. Colleges, universities and employers that rely on international students and temporary workers have reported growing strain.

 

At the same time, asylum applications continued to rise. Canada received about 505,000 asylum claims in 2025, more than three times the 161,000 recorded in 2022, according to government figures.

 

Together, the data shows a year in which Canada tightened entry routes while stepping up enforcement, even as migration pressures shifted rather than disappeared.