Safeguards have been written into the government’s border bill to ensure civil rights and due process are upheld in proposed immigration regulations, Immigration Minister Lena Diab said Wednesday.

Critics and advocacy groups are calling the wide-ranging border security legislation a threat to civil liberties in the immigration and asylum system.

One proposed change in the legislation would prevent people from making asylum claims if they’ve been in Canada for more than a year.

That change would not affect applications that have been submitted already but would be retroactive to June 3, assuming the bill becomes law.

Diab said there would still be opportunities for asylum seekers who have been in Canada for more than a year to make their case through measures like pre-removal risk

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