Canada lets in gang member after botched border screening

Violent criminals increasingly slip through the cracks of the Canadian immigration screening process. So believes criminologist Kelly Sundberg, who responded to questions about Abdullahi Hashi Farah. Farah is a known criminal of Somali origin. He escaped justice in the United States by illegally entering Manitoba on October 27, 2017. Four days prior, the United States issued a nationwide warrant for his arrest and deportation. Once in detention on the Canadian side of the border, Farah admitted to being a gang member for a couple of years. He then claimed to have “left that life”. That was a bald-faced lie. He also obfuscated his use of eight different aliases. With a proper screening process, we could have known the truth about him without asking. However, Canada believed the refugee claimant on his word. Our detention officer even noted that Farah was "one of the most honest detainees". When Tony Langeland learned about this, he burst out laughing.

He is definitely not the most honest person I have ever met. But he is a criminal and he is involved in a whole lot of shit.

Langeland recently retired from Homeland Security. He was the agent tasked with handling Farah during a sex-trafficking case in the United States.

Canadians are nice, but that’s no excuse for the poor process

Canadians have a reputation: we project our goodness unto others. We assume good faith. Unfortunately, this leads to poor decision-making when dealing with criminals. The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) did not wait to receive Farah’s full criminal record from the U.S. as per Canada Border Services Agency recommendations. The IRB is the largest administrative tribunal in Canada. It is responsible for making “well-reasoned decisions” on immigration and refugee matters. I wonder why the IRB should follow simple recommendations. Are recommendations enough? We have no idea who's entering our country, and we don't ask our friends what they know. The U.S. is our friend. When processing illegal migrants from our friend and ally, requesting and receiving criminal records should be automatic. Computerized. Wait. There's more.

Not all data collected gets recorded in the screening process

In his Canadian asylum claim, Farah claimed he was a homosexual Muslim. He feared "certain death" if deported to Somalia. Another outrageous lie. So why did we believe him? Probably because Canadians want to help. We care about people who suffer, and we're suckers for a good sob story. Criminals are able to use human weakness to their advantage. That said, good process minimizes error due to human weakness. Good process doesn't have emotions. Sadly, we don't have a good process. Ours is broken. Investigation of Farah’s case showed that his mobile phone contained Tinder chats and images of nude women. It also contained photos of Farah having sex with women. There was no evidence of homosexual activity. Strangely, the IRB transcript does not mention the phone report. Again, bad screening process. There’s a lot more to the story. Farah’s rap sheet contains armed robbery, burglary, theft, receiving stolen property, possessing a prohibited handgun, reckless discharging of a firearm, breaching immigration release and parole conditions in the U.S., fleeing arrest, parole violation, and more. Good news: we're deporting him now. It's a year late, though. Better screening process would have helped us get rid of the criminal sooner.

Why does this matter?

I believe Canadians truly want to help refugees. While our desire comes from a good place, Canadians are losing faith in the system. It's not only because the system is failing. Canadians are also concerned about practical things, like how migrants are treated... but journalists are denied access to migrant residences by government agencies. When we ask legitimate questions about the costs of the migrant crisis, we are shut down by leaders like Justin Trudeau, who call us racist. Without faith in the system, we will no longer support it. Ultimately, legitimate refugee claimants will suffer the consequences. However, this time is different. The cracks in our screening process are too big and too many. The Trudeau government cannot deny that the system needs to be reformed. We cannot demonize Canadians for believing that hardened criminals enter Canada too easily when gangsters like Farah waltz across our border. It is entirely unacceptable this thug was released into the general population before a criminal record was received or even requested. It's high time to reform the screening process for migrants who illegally cross our border. What do you think? Join the conversation by commenting below!