New report identifies systemic racism in immigration detention, calls for abolition

Think things are bad down south? Canada has no reason to be proud of our immigration detention system either, according to a new report which finds the detention system disproportionately impacts racialized people, particularly Black men.

In this Q&A, Dr. Efrat Arbel (EA), KC, professor in the Peter A. Allard School of Law, and report co-authors Prasanna Balasundaram (PB), and Nana Yanful (NY), discuss the need for an end to silence about the systemic racism in immigration detention and their call for a gradual abolition of the system.

What did the report find?

EA: We know that there are serious problems in Canada’s immigration detention system. Canada detained almost 60,000 people, including children, from 2015-2025. There is also no legal limit on immigration detention in Canada. And, there are core problems with respect to systemic racism within the system.

Canada does not collect race-disaggregated data on detention. This makes it challenging to identify and address patterns of racial harm. Our study is the first to comprehensively analyze race and racism in Canada’s immigration detention system. In addition to analyzing limited public data, we conducted 50 interviews with experts and people with lived-experience in detention, and found that Canada’s immigration detention system:

• systematically produces racially adverse outcomes that disproportionately impact racialized people, and Black men in particular;
• contains no meaningful safeguards to prevent racism, race-based stereotypes, and other forms of racial bias from shaping detention decisions; and
• lacks effective avenues to identify and challenge racism and racial bias

These findings raise serious concerns that Canada’s immigration detention system creates and perpetuates racial inequality.

What are the causes?

NY: Our research shows that Canada’s immigration detention system was built on racist laws and structures. While the explicit racial language of past laws has been removed, racial thinking continues to shape key decisions that result in immigration detention.

Our research also shows that immigration detention intersects with other state systems that are shaped by systemic racism, for example, policing and the criminal legal system. Heavy policing of Black and other racialized communities, disproportionate traffic stops, disproportionate criminalization, overuse of wellness checks, all funnel racialized people into immigration detention at disproportionate rates.

Our research identifies four structural features of the system that allow racial bias and racial stereotypes to shape discretionary decision-making at every stage of the detention continuum. These include broad legal discretion for actors in the system, weak standards for the evidence required by the system, deference to immigration authorities, and the absence of meaningful oversight of the system and its actors. In fact, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) is the only police force without independent oversight in Canada.

The result is adverse material outcomes for racialized people, particularly for Black men.

What can be done?

PB: Our findings point to an immigration detention system in which systemic racism is not an aberration, but an inevitability. We conclude that racial disparities are not an accidental feature of the system, but a consequence of its design and operation. As a result, incremental reforms, such as the creation of oversight bodies or the introduction of mandatory training requirements, are incapable of producing change.

In light of our findings, we recommend that Canada gradually abolish immigration detention. Abolition is the only approach capable of reliably preventing the continued production of racial discrimination in immigration detention.

As Canada moves towards this goal, we also identify steps to address the harms we identify, including conducting a national, independent review focused on race and racism, establishing an independent body to oversee and investigate detention, collecting and publishing race-aggregated data on all aspects of the detention system, and amending the law to impose a maximum time limit on detention and prohibit the detention of children.

Interview language(s): English (Arbel, Balasundaram, Yanful)

The report was also co-authored by Hanna Gros, an immigration and refugee lawyer and expert in the law of immigration detention.

Nana Yanful is a lawyer at Yanful Law and former founding Legal Director at the Black Legal Action Centre.

Prasanna Balasundaram is Director of the University of Toronto’s Downtown Legal Services clinic.

Featured Researcher

Prof. Efrat Arbel, BA, JD, SJD, Member of the Bar of British Columbia

Associate Professor, Centre for Migration Studies, Peter A. Allard School of Law