By: Daniel Nardini

It seems that the United States is not the only country in North America with a lack of oversight of its immigration system. Back in 2011, Canada forcibly deported a lady who was the victim of domestic abuse in Mexico. The lady, named Paola Ortiz, fled Mexico because she feared for her life and the authorities in her country could not guarantee her safety. She arrived in Canada, and applied for asylum based on the fact that she was the victim of domestic abuse. She eventually married a Canadian citizen and had two daughters. Being married to a Canadian citizen should have guaranteed that she could stay in Canada. Apparently, it didn’t. Instead, she was ordered deported. Ortiz exhausted all appeals in the immigration process, and the Canadian immigration authorities forcibly took her to the airport and forcibly put her on the plane back to Mexico.

For seven months, Ortiz’s immigration lawyers and a pro-immigration group called Solidarity Across Borders argued through the Quebec immigration system that Ortiz would be in serious danger if she stayed in Mexico, and that she should have never been deported in the first place. Besides, she was married to a Canadian citizen and had two daughters who need their mother. Apparently, their efforts and struggle to get Ortiz back worked because on April 12, Paola Ortiz was allowed back into Canada with legal permanent resident status. Ortiz was able to be reunited with her daughters and her husband. One has to wonder why the Canadian immigration system did not work in the first place? Apparently, domestic violence is not considered a valid reason for seeking asylum. And then there was the fact that she has a family who needs her. Well, I am sure that there are other cases where a member of a loving family has been deported for whatever crazy reason. Like the United States, this seems to be a problem in Canada too. But in this case there was a happy ending.