However the lead-up to the Olympic trials would show to be a tumultuous time for Lindo. Over time, he and his household had utilized for each single authorized avenue obtainable for them to stay in Canada — however time and again, they have been refused.
Throughout the first half of 2024, Lindo and his household confronted two successive deportation scares. The newest got here after their utility to stay in Canada on “humanitarian and compassionate grounds” was denied.
The stress made Lindo lose a substantial quantity of weight, and he credit the nervousness with hampering his potential to deal with hurdling.
“Being an athlete is difficult sufficient,” mentioned Lindo. “Having to additionally undergo all of this? There’s quite a bit on my plate.”
However immigration advocates say Lindo isn’t alone. Whereas the Canadian authorities acknowledges there are “no correct figures” for the variety of undocumented folks in Canada, it estimates the inhabitants might vary wherever from 20,000 to 500,000.
In Canada, specialists say the vast majority of undocumented immigrants don’t arrive by means of irregular border crossings. Reasonably, most enter the nation by means of authorized channels, like refugee claims or visa purposes.
Like Lindo, lots of them lose their authorized standing to remain within the nation, generally by means of circumstances exterior their management.
Their visas might expire, or their utility might be rejected, leaving them with a precarious selection: to return house or keep in Canada with out the correct paperwork.
Syed Hussan, the chief director of Canada’s Migrant Staff Alliance for Change (MWAC), mentioned 2023 noticed the very best variety of deportations in a decade. He estimates that 40 occur every day.
His group has been advocating on Lindo’s behalf, within the hopes of stopping his deportation.
Since December 2021, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to implement a regularisation programme that may permit undocumented folks to achieve authorized residency.
However Hassan factors out that such a pathway has but to materialise. Trudeau himself has admitted there isn’t a official timeline but for its creation and implementation.
Had a regularisation programme been in place, Hussan believes “the Lindo household wouldn’t have gone by means of the disaster that they’ve”.
In response to Vincent Wong, an assistant legislation professor on the College of Windsor, the failure to create a regularisation programme might be attributed to fears of nationalistic backlash and the perceived socioeconomic advantages of sustaining the established order.
“Undocumented communities [in Canada], though very giant as a proportion of the Canadian inhabitants, are way more administratively and politically invisibilised than in america,” mentioned Wong.