By Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun | Link to Article
VANCOUVER — For undocumented immigrants in Canada, needing medical attention, getting a transit ticket violation or being a victim of domestic abuse can lead to deportation.
By Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun | Link to Article
VANCOUVER — For undocumented immigrants in Canada, needing medical attention, getting a transit ticket violation or being a victim of domestic abuse can lead to deportation.
But now the City of Vancouver is looking at ways to lessen the safety risks for undocumented people, even if that occasionally means looking the other way.
Last month about two dozen people — including those representing immigrant agencies, the city, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and Vancouver police — met to explore a request from a group called Sanctuary City to have the city declare itself a sanctuary zone for undocumented workers.
Such a designation is being applied with increasing frequency by U.S. cities, which seek to defuse illegal immigration issues that can lead to health and safety concerns for illegal aliens.
In Canada at least two cities, Toronto and Hamilton, have offered some qualified protection for the undocumented who need medical or other services, but are afraid to come forward for fear they will be deported by the Canada Border Services Agency.
In Vancouver, the idea is only in its infancy. Coun. Geoff Meggs, the co-chair of a mayor’s advisory committee on immigration matters, said Thursday the issue is complex but the city has some sympathy for undocumented people who could be deported simply because they avail themselves of a public service.
“We are in very early days. I was hearing from people who are active in the community with undocumented workers that they would like the city to step forward in some way,” he said. “But when I raised the issue with members of the mayor’s working group … they cautioned — as did some of the community advocates — that it would be really wrong to make some snap, hollow declaration that perhaps misled people or had zero foundation in reality.”
Meggs said the issue arose because of the federal government’s recent decision to deny medical services to illegal aliens. It was exacerbated by the recent apparent suicide of Lucia Vega Jiménez, a Mexican woman who died in CBSA custody after being picked up by TransLink Police on a transit ticket violation. There is also a reported case of a woman without health care coverage who gave birth at home with the aid of a midwife because she couldn’t afford $10,000 in hospital fees.
Meggs said the committee will file a recommendation to Mayor Gregor Robertson by the end of summer suggesting some changes but he doesn’t expect any action until after the Nov. 15 civic election.
Officials with Sanctuary City did not respond to a request for an interview. However, in an interview with the online magazine Tyee, Alejandra López Bravo agreed with Meggs.
“We think that a policy on paper doesn’t make any sense; there needs to be meaningful implementation,” she said. “For that, we need to have TransLink and the VPD on board, otherwise you might have a lot of backlash, or a policy that doesn’t mean anything in the lives of affected people.”
A spokesman for the VPD said Insp. Mario Giardini, head of the department’s diversity and aboriginal policing unit, attended the meeting but the police department “would not be in a position to speak to the ‘sanctuary city’ designation proposal by the city.”