Ottawa has lost track of about 33,000 immigrants who are currently seeking to evade an order to leave the country, the president of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) told a parliamentary committee Tuesday.

Testifying before the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, Erin O’Gorman explained that the number of individuals in what the CBSA calls the “wanted inventory” has remained relatively stable over the past five years, but that removals of immigrants considered inadmissible on security grounds has doubled in the same period.

“We’re constantly scooping water out of that bathtub,” Aaron McCrorie, VP of Intelligence and Enforcement at the CBSA, added. “But the bathtub is filling up as well.”

Related: • Immigration crackdown: New OMNI poll shows newcomers want

See Full Page