International students facing deportation after Calgary protest get backing from 250+ organizations

More than 250 Canadian organizations have signed an open letter demanding an investigation into immigration enforcement at a student protest in Calgary last month and calling for policy changes to protect the right to protest.

On August 12, Canadian Border Services Agency officers checked immigration statuses of international graduates at a protest outside the Canadian Institute of Osteopathic Therapy in Calgary. CBSA verified the statuses of 20 people and identified 12 as possibly inadmissible under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. Those 12 were asked to attend CBSA offices for follow-up interviews, and 10 were handed exclusion orders requiring them to leave Canada immediately and setting a one-year ban on returning.

The organizations behind the letter — including Amnesty International Canada, The United Church of Canada, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees — are demanding that the removal orders be suspended, that a policy be created to separate protests from immigration enforcement, and that the affected students receive work permits.

Syed Hussan, spokesperson for Migrant Rights Network and a key voice behind the letter, said the targeting of students at a protest is "deeply, deeply concerning, because it puts at risk everyone's right of expression." Hussan added, "It opens up any possible silencing of people being able to protect themselves. It applies to protests, it applies to picket lines, it applies to a community meeting."

Gurpreet Singh, one of the students handed an exclusion order, graduated from Portage College in December 2024 with a diploma from the Canadian Institute of Osteopathic Therapy, delivered through a joint program licensed by Portage. Singh said the college administration had told graduates that non-credit courses were eligible for post-graduation work permits.

"Everybody was bamboozled," Singh said. "We don't understand the intricacy of the laws that Canadians have, especially the new ones we are not even familiar with."

IRCC denied roughly 400 to 500 post-graduation work permits for graduates within a week in July. The agency announced in March 2024 that international students in programs "delivered through a public-private curriculum licensing arrangement would no longer be eligible for a post-graduation work permit" starting May 15, 2026. Those enrolled before the cut-off date remain eligible, though Singh and others say they enrolled under different expectations. Immigration consultant offices in Calgary have been packed with students facing similar rejections.