In recent weeks, Canadians learned that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) has field offices in Calgary and three other major Canadian cities.
Given the ongoing controversy about ICE’s aggressive enforcement tactics and high-profile fatal shootings in the U.S., some people are concerned about ICE’s operations in Canada.
But what exactly is ICE doing in Calgary, and should citizens be worried about their activities in the city?
ICE’s role in Canada
While there is limited public information about what ICE does in Canada, it’s important to recognize its separate branches, according to Laurie Trautman, director of the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University.
“The stuff that you’re seeing happening in Minneapolis and in other cities in the United States is their enforcement and removal operations,” she said.
Trautman is referring to recent cases — such as the death of 37-year-old Renee Good, a U.S.-born citizen who was in the car with her wife when an ICE officer shot and killed her in Minneapolis — which have sparked mass concern about ICE’s operations in the U.S.
ICE’s removals branch is responsible for the “identification, arrest, detention and removal of aliens,” according to the agency’s official website.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is ICE’s other component, the branch present in Canada.
According to a statement provided by an ICE spokesperson, Homeland Security conducts criminal investigations into national threats such as terrorism, drug trafficking, smuggling and child exploitation, among others.
The statement describes the agents as “skilled and highly trained” and states that they are assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa and the U.S. Consulates in Calgary, Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.
“Our HSI agents do not carry firearms in Canada,” reads the statement. “HSI special agents do not conduct operational activities in Canada, such as making arrests or executing search warrants.”
HSI, along with other U.S. Department of Justice officials, operates from the U.S. Consulate General in downtown Calgary, according to the U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Canada official website.
Calgary’s U.S. consulate has operated in the prairie city since 1906, but it is unclear when HSI began operations here.
Should Calgarians be worried about ICE’s presence in Canada?
Trautman says the lack of public information about ICE’s operations in Canada is expected, given the sensitive nature of its investigations, but not a major cause for concern.
“They don’t even have the authorities to do the kind of stuff that they’re doing within the U.S. in Canada,” she says. “Those authorities don’t exist.”
In a recent interview with The Walrus, University of Toronto professor and acclaimed Canadian constitutional law scholar Kent Roach expressed concerns about ICE and the limited knowledge of the agency’s operations on Canadian soil.
Roach is also worried by attitudes towards Canada having a potential ICE-like organization in the future, particularly the use of terms like “illegals” and “worst of the worst” when referring to undocumented immigrants. He says dehumanizing non-citizens allows for Canadians’ fears about crime and immigration to be used as “wedge issues.”
While Canadians shouldn’t ignore ICE’s presence in Canada, Roach says people should instead focus on unfounded enforcement at the hands of the RCMP, particularly in Indigenous communities.
The University of Toronto academic referenced the recent deaths of Bronson Paul and Darrell Augustine, both First Nations men who were shot and killed by the RCMP within five days of each other this January.
“They’re just as dead as Ms. Good and Mr. [Alex] Pretti. Bruce Springsteen isn’t likely to write a song about them, but someone should,” Roach told The Walrus.