Joseph Leivdal — The Peak (Simon Fraser University)

BURNABY (CUP) — In a political climate where the Conservative government has implemented numerous xenophobic (often racist) immigration and refugee policies, including the mandatory detention of “suspicious” asylum seekers for up to one full year with no guarantee for refugee status, we should be highly suspicious of a government-funded reality show featuring the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). On March 13, dozens of CBSA officers, accompanied by cameras from Force Four Entertainment, raided a Vancouver construction site, arresting dozens of migrant workers despite the stated intention of the CBSA to detain one particular man with a lengthy criminal record. Eight remain in custody and are facing hearings and deportation.

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Opinion: Deportation is not entertainment
By Harsha Walia, Special to The Vancouver Sun April 2, 2013

Last week, Fraser Institute affiliate Martin Collacott took aim at those speaking out against the TV show Border Security and advocating for non-status migrants. While Collacott believes that such a distasteful and dehumanizing TV show is defensible, Amnesty International released an open letter to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews: “Amnesty International believes that filming and broadcasting these raids has jeopardized the basic rights of these undocumented workers, as protected under the international conventions that Canada has ratified.” Amnesty also calls into question Harper government’s active support for the TV show, “The divergence between the goals of a government agency and a TV production company calls into serious question the ethics of such a collaboration.”

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Thursday, March 28th, 2013 | Indo Canadian Voice

Migrant worker Tulio Renan Aviles Hernandez was deported Wednesday night from Vancouver. Hernandez was one of the migrant workers detained by CBSA in an immigration enforcement raid in Vancouver
and filmed by the reality TV Border Security. He was deported by CBSA on Wed evening March 27 at 11 pm.

His wife, daughter and extended family went to the airport on Wednesday March 27th at 9 pm to attempt to see Hernandez, who was being kept in detention, prior to his deportation to Honduras. Diana
Thompson, Hernandez’s wife, fears for his life in Honduras. The couple was in the process of completing Hernandez’s sponsorship.

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Renan Avilez Hernandez, detained and filmed by CBSA and Force Four, facing deportation to Honduras tomorrow.

Diana Thompson, an Indigenous woman and wife of Renan says: “I feel frustrated and sad and angry and hurt. I don’t know when I will see him. As a First Nations woman, I have a right to choose my partner and my life and how I want to live. He was working, supporting his family back home and my family here. Who is this government to say who can stay?”

By Kate Webb Metro

A lawyer representing six men detained in a Vancouver immigration raid that was filmed by the TV show Border Security two weeks ago is questioning the production company’s characterization of the show as a documentary series. Zool Suleman said Thursday he has contacted the federal ministry responsible for approving the show and the production company, Force Four Entertainment, asking that they apologize for subjecting his clients to “unwarranted public scrutiny.”

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