Asylum seekers who break the law or work illegally will soon be thrown out of Government-funded accommodation and lose support payments.

A new rule change means only those with legitimate asylum claims who follow the rules will get taxpayer-funded support, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced.

The measures, coming into force in June, will remove support payments and accommodation to asylum seekers who illegally work, have the ability to support themselves, have the right to work or have broken the law, the Home Office said.

The statutory legal duty under EU law to provide asylum seekers with support and accommodation will be replaced with a conditional approach.

The Government is determined to make the UK a less attractive destination for illegal migrants.

Mahmood said: ‘Britain will always provide refuge to people fleeing war and persecution. But taxpayers cannot be expected to fund the lives of those who exploit the system or break our laws.

She added: ‘Asylum support and accommodation will now become conditional – reserved only to those who play by our rules.’

Last year, a total of £4 billion was spent on asylum support in the UK, and as of December, there were 107,003 people in receipt of asylum support, with 30,657 in around 200 asylum hotels, the Home Office said.

The issue of people being housed in hotels rose to prominence last year with protests outside some sites.

Labour has pledged to no longer use asylum hotels by the end of this Parliament, which would be 2029, if not earlier.

In October, the Government announced that barracks in Scotland and southern England would be used to house around 900 men temporarily, as part of the Government’s efforts to stop using hotels to temporarily house asylum seekers.

A charity boss said the Home Secretary was looking for ‘a bump in the polls’ with the move.

Tim Naor Hilton, chief executive of Refugee Action, said: ‘The Home Secretary already has the power to deny support and accommodation to people seeking asylum who are not destitute or who have broken the rules.

‘This is the latest in a long line of announcements from successive governments that bully refugees for a bump in the polls rather than try to solve the real problems faced by people and communities – poverty, homelessness, and the rise of the far right.’

Hilton added: ‘Ministers must end this dangerous race to the bottom and make the case for a UK that welcomes people fleeing war and torture and supports them to rebuild their lives here.’

Amnesty International UK’s Naomi McAuliffe said: ‘This proposal is scapegoating and cruelty masquerading as strength. It is the latest punitive blow being dealt to some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

‘People seeking asylum are often fleeing conflict, persecution and grave human rights abuses. Removing access to basic support and accommodation risks forcing people into destitution, homelessness and exploitation while they wait for their claims to be decided.’

Responding to the announcement, shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: ‘Labour should put foreign criminals on a plane home, not onto British streets.

‘If Labour had a backbone and deported all illegal immigrants, there would not be the need for asylum accommodation. Foreign nationals who commit crimes should be deported anyway.

‘Labour have deported only 6% of illegal arrivals since coming to office, so rolling out another gimmick will not change a thing.’

Mahmood will lay out further measures to toughen up the UK asylum system in a speech on Thursday.

Under the widely trailed plans, asylum seekers in the UK will have their refugee status reviewed every 30 months in an effort to make the UK less attractive for illegal immigrants.

Refugees whose countries are deemed safe will be expected to return home.

The Home Secretary believes the Government must cut migration or risk opening the door to the right who would divide communities with the kind of anti-immigration raids seen in the US.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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Senators on the social affairs committee want to see immigration-related sections in the government’s border security bill, C-12, removed or significantly modified by the Senate national security committee.

The national security committee is responsible for tabling amendments, while the social affairs committee has conducted an in-depth study of the bill’s immigration measures.

The national security committee began Monday with independent Senator Tony Dean reading a lengthy letter on behalf of Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree and Immigration Minister Lena Diab on the rationale for the bill, responding to issues raised in the social affairs committee study.

The letter stressed that there is bipartisan support for this bill as only “a handful” of MPs voted against it and B.C. Premier David Eby said it should be passed “without delay” after alleged extortionists made asylum claims in that province.

That study says the social affairs committee heard from witnesses who warned the legislation could violate human rights and lacks procedural fairness.

Bill C-12 has sections focused on immigration that deal with information-sharing and managing the asylum system. It also proposes giving the government new powers to modify or cancel existing immigration documents and applications.

The committee’s report says if the national security committee opts not to remove the sections on immigration, it should introduce more robust parliamentary oversight to the legislation and include a sunset clause to require a parliamentary review.

The report was broadly welcomed by civil society groups who testified before the Senate social affairs committee.

“When senators actually listened to the people who would be impacted by Bill C-12 — after we were blocked from testifying in the House — they heard how dangerous it is and called for deletion of the immigration sections,” Karen Cocq, Migrant Rights Network spokesperson, said in a media statement.

The Senate committee report contains nine other recommendations aimed at addressing questions raised by witness testimony.

They include a change to the section in the legislation that would bar people who first came to Canada more than a year prior from filing refugee claims. That section would be retroactive to June 24, 2020.

Diab told the committee earlier this month that 37 per cent of asylum claims filed between June 3 and Oct. 31, 2025 would be disallowed under this ineligibility measure — about 19,000 of 50,000 applications.

The letter from Diab and Anandasangaree says while asylum claims have dropped by one third in 2025 compared to 2024, more still needs to be done to disincentivize misuse of the asylum system and new measures are needed with plans to reduce temporary visa volumes.

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Witnesses warned the Senate social affairs committee that the current wording might prevent someone who came to Canada as a baby on a family vacation from making a conventional asylum claim. The committee wants to see that one-year period increased to five years.

The government defended this timeline during committee hearings, saying people could still apply for a pre-removal risk assessment if they sought asylum under these conditions.

Witnesses, including the Canadian Bar Association and Amnesty International, argued the legislation would set up a two-tier asylum system that wouldn’t guarantee in-person hearings for vulnerable people, such as members of the LGBTQ+ community and survivors of domestic violence.

The senators also reject making that section retroactive to June 24, 2020 and want it made active once the bill receives Royal Assent.

The bill proposes giving the government powers to cancel or modify a host of immigration documents — including permanent residency cards — that have been issued already or are in the government’s application inventory if cabinet decides it’s in the public interest.

Government witnesses told the committee this power would be used to address administrative errors, fraud and threats to public health, public safety or national security.

Other witnesses said the broad “public interest” wording could be used to justify discriminatory mass cancellations and cited how sweeping government orders were used to turn away Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.

The committee recommends adding an amendment to require “robust parliamentary oversight” to monitor the use of these proposed powers.

The social affairs committee also recommends that the government give the Immigration and Refugee Board extra resources to help it review refugee claims. The IRB currently has a backlog of about 300,000 claims waiting to be processed.

The bill proposes giving the government power to share the personal information of migrants, permanent residents and naturalized citizens with other federal departments, provinces, territories and foreign governments.

The government told the committee these powers are intended to ease the administrative burden of information-sharing and ensure applicants get access to services.

The Senate social affairs committee wants the wording changed to exempt permanent residents and naturalized citizens from information-sharing and to introduce a mandatory privacy commissioner review.

The bill has a second reading vote deadline of Feb. 26.

&copy 2026 The Canadian Press

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says out-of-control immigration levels are overwhelming the province’s core social services and has announced a referendum will take place nine months from now, asking residents to weigh in on nine questions addressing both that and possible changes to Canada’s Constitution.

(Scroll down to see the questions)

In a televised speech Thursday night, Smith said the Oct. 19, provincial referendum will be primarily focused on finding out how Albertans want the government to “deal with the issue of immigration, as well as steps we can take as a province to strengthen our constitutional and fiscal position within a united Canada.”

Smith said the changes her UCP government has determined the province needs to make to immigration are a significant departure from the status quo.

“These were far and away the issues most strongly identified by Albertans during last year’s Alberta Next panel town halls and online submissions, and in my view, it is time to act on them,” Smith said in a 13-minute televised speech that the government paid to air during the 6 p.m. primetime news hour.

“The fact is, Alberta taxpayers can no longer be asked to continue to subsidize the entire country through equalization and federal transfers, permit the federal government to flood our borders with new arrivals, and then give free access to our most-generous-in-the-country social programs to anyone who moves here,” Smith said.

The premier noted the province will be unveiling a large deficit in next week’s budget and lower oil prices have contributed to less revenue.

According to the Alberta government, each $1 drop in the price of oil means roughly $750 million fewer royalties for the province.

However, Smith said social services costs going to more new residents is making Alberta’s budget woes even worse.

“This is not only grossly unfair to Alberta taxpayers, but also financially crippling and undercuts the quality of our health care, education and other social services.”

Mount Royal political scientist Lori Williams challenges that assertion.

“To suggest that this budget deficit is primarily caused by immigration — that non-citizens who come to Alberta are filling emergency rooms and classrooms and that’s where problems coming from — it creates, I think, a distorted picture of what’s actually going on,” Williams said after Smith’s speech aired.

Danielle Smith has been Alberta premier since 2022 and Williams believes Thursday’s speech aimed to redirect public attention away from the province.

“People are concerned very much about affordability, they’re concerned about health care, and they are concerned about education. And the government has invested in some areas, has been addressing some of the problems that have been raised — but they persist.”

“People, when a government has been in power for years, start to notice if promises aren’t fulfilled. They start ask questions and they start make more demands of a government.”

Bradley Lafortune, executive director of Public Interest Alberta, said a bad news budget is not unheard of in a province that gleans so much of its income from oil and gas royalties.

“That’s nothing new in Alberta. But what is new, I think — at least with this degree of focus and tone — is the shift in blame towards immigration and newcomers,” he said after listening to the speech.

“Fundamentally, this is a Trump-style, MAGA government that is doing their best to imitate the current Republicans in the United States,” Lafortune said.

“And what that means is blaming newcomers, cutting services, reducing taxes, and then telling everyone that we need to do more with less, at the same time as friends and insiders are receiving massive amounts of grift on the public dollar.”

Lafortune thinks Albertans should prepare for a “very bad budget” next Thursday that he predicts will contain more cuts to frontline services and the administration of them.

“What I mean by bad is it’s going to be bad for Albertans, working middle-class Albertans. I think its gonna be very bad.”

Smith said in the short-term, the government will not be implementing drastic cuts in the 2026 budget but will instead be cutting unnecessary bureaucracy, improving efficiencies in program delivery (such as more income testing for social programs) and prioritizing needs before wants as much as possible.

“The approved wage increases for our doctors, nurses, and teachers will remain in place so we can continue to attract the skilled professionals needed to catch up with our growth,” Smith said.

According to Statistics Canada, Alberta’s population surged by 202,324 residents in 2023. That’s the largest annual increase in the province’s history, the equivalent of 550 people moving to Alberta every day.

While the bulk of the growth came from international migration, Alberta also shattered a national record for interprovincial migration, most of whom came from Ontario and B.C.

The province’s population growth peaked in the third quarter of 2023, with it dropping off significantly in 2024 and 2025, according to the most recent Statistics Canada data.

“I think the federal government started realizing that they’ve been pushing too strongly on the population growth through different types of migration, international migration,” Carleton University economics professor Christopher Worswick said of the decline that began in 2024.

“So we saw caps on the number of international students coming in. I think that needed to be done because the program was growing just way too fast.”

Premier Smith blames the former Justin Trudeau Liberal government for Alberta’s population woes, saying over five years almost 600,000 people moved to Alberta, pushing the population over five million people.

“Ottawa throttled our most important job creating industries and prioritized immigration away from economic migrants and instead focused on international students, temporary workers and asylum seekers,” Smith said.

In 2022-23, the province ran a $4.95 million “Alberta is Calling” campaign aimed at attracting skilled workers to the province from other parts of the country.

“Although sustainable immigration has always been an important part of our provincial growth model, throwing the doors wide open to anyone and everyone across the globe has flooded our classrooms, emergency rooms and social support systems with far too many people, far too quickly,” Smith said.

Overcrowded classrooms and a strained health-care system has been a documented issue in Alberta for well over a decade and Williams said blaming it on newer residents is a deflexion of responsibility.

“There’s no question that we have seen very large numbers of newcomers to Alberta. Part of that is because the Alberta government has invited people, citizens of Canada to come here and to work in Alberta.

“To somehow suggest that the problem has been created by immigration — as if these problems didn’t exist before those immigration numbers ticked up — I think is inaccurate.”

She fears it will create strife and inflame racial tensions.

“I think that impression is potentially quite problematic, particularly for those who are already struggling with people’s hostility toward them.”

The October referendum, a year before the province’s scheduled general election, could be even longer.

Last year, Smith promised a referendum on separation in 2026 if citizens gathered the required number of signatures on a petition.

One citizen-led petition to be put to lawmakers this spring could lead to a referendum vote on making it a provincial policy that Alberta stay in Canada.

Another petition effort, with a deadline for signatures in early May, seeks a referendum question about pulling the province out of Confederation.

Smith said Thursday that strengthening Alberta’s “constitutional and fiscal position within a united Canada” and immigration were the biggest issues her Alberta Next panel heard as it toured the province last year.

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One of the issues tabled for debate was whether Alberta should withhold social services from some immigrants. The panel was propped up by calls from in-person attendees who at times called for mass deportations.

In January, Smith’s United Conservative Party government walked back what it called a “premature” decision to cut off temporary foreign workers from provincial health-care coverage, including those who had already obtained work permits.

The ministry in charge said, at the time, the move was on pause pending review.

On Wednesday, Smith’s chief of staff, Rob Anderson, reposted a social media infographic about immigration numbers and invited readers to watch the premier’s televised address.

“This absolute insanity needs to stop. It will,” he wrote.

The executive director of the premier’s office, Bruce McAllister, also pointed to the same social media post to sound off on population growth.

“Does their contempt for Canada’s core values and traditions drive them to flood our borders with millions from societies not built on the same foundations that have made us thrive?” McAllister said on X.

“Why import from nations with failed systems when our Judeo-Christian heritage and principles have worked so well here? It almost feels like these elites are ashamed of what built this great country.”

Smith was asked Wednesday if her government shared McAllister’s values. She didn’t directly answer but said western society is based on “the Socratic Judeo-Christian tradition.”

“However, Alberta was also created since 1905 based on the immense diaspora communities that come here,” she said.

She said the federal government has made changes to refocus on economic migrants and that the previous system “broke.”

“It was the No. 1 issue that we heard,” she said, referring to the Alberta Next panel.

As it stands right now, the referendum in October will ask Albertans nine questions concerning immigration and the Constitution:

Immigration

1. Do you support the Government of Alberta taking increased control over immigration for the purposes of decreasing immigration to more sustainable levels, prioritizing economic migration and giving Albertans first priority on new employment opportunities?

2. Do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law mandating that only Canadian citizens, permanent residents and individuals with an Alberta-approved immigration status will be eligible for provincially-funded programs, such as health care, education and other social services?

3. Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for social support programs as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring all individuals with a non-permanent legal immigration status to reside in Alberta for at least 12 months before qualifying for any provincially-funded social support programs?

4. Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for public health care and education as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta charging a reasonable fee or premium to individuals with a non-permanent immigration status living in Alberta for their and their family’s use of the healthcare and education systems?

5. Do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring individuals to provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate, or citizenship card, to vote in an Alberta provincial election?

Constitution

6. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to have provincial governments, and not the federal government, select the justices appointed to provincial King’s Bench and Appeal courts?

7. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to abolish the unelected federal Senate?

8. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to allow provinces to opt out of federal programs that intrude on provincial jurisdiction such as health care, education, and social services, without a province losing any of the associated federal funding for use in its social programs?

9. Do you support the Government of Alberta working with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the Canadian Constitution to better protect provincial rights from federal interference by giving a province’s laws dealing with provincial or shared areas of constitutional jurisdiction priority over federal laws when the province’s laws and federal laws conflict?

With files from Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press

Canada is launching new Express Entry immigration streams for permanent residents to meet the future needs of the economy, including categories for research, transportation and military recruitment, Immigration Minister Lena Diab said.

These will be in addition to the specialized streams already in place for health care and social services workers, such as nurse practitioners, dentists, pharmacists, psychologists and chiropractors, and for trades, such as carpenters, plumbers and machinists.

In December, Ottawa announced a specialized Express Entry stream for foreign-trained doctors with Canadian work experience.

The first round for applications under that category will begin this week, Diab said.

The first category that’s being added is for researchers and senior managers with Canadian work experience to help drive research in Canada.

“We’re supporting the broader federal efforts to drive innovation and growth, including a $1.7 billion initiative announced in December by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada to attract world-leading researchers to Canada,” she said.

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The federal government is also adding a second category for transportation workers, to help plug labour shortages in Canada’s transportation sector, she added. This will include applications for people who are trained pilots, aircraft mechanics and inspectors.

“We’ve identified these sectors as areas in critical need. Strengthening those helps us move goods across the country and to new markets supporting trade, supply chains and economic resilience,” Diab said.

Ottawa is also launching a third stream of entry — skilled military recruits.

“We are creating a new category for skilled military recruits to attract highly skilled foreign military applicants. Eligible recruits with a job offer from the Canadian Armed Forces, including doctors, nurses, pilots can be invited to apply for permanent residence,” Diab said.

She added that this category is being introduced to complement the defence industrial strategy, announced by Prime Minister Mark Carney on Tuesday.

Carney released his new Buy Canadian plan for supplying the military and growing Canada’s domestic defence industry on Tuesday, saying Canada can never be “hostage” to the decisions of others when it comes to security.

The $6.6-billion plan promises to prioritize building military equipment at home, hike the share of defence contracts awarded to Canadian firms and add up to 125,000 new jobs over the next decade.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

A woke Portland, Oregon, pizza restaurant bombarded diners visiting its website with an unhinged anti-ICE rant – before bizarrely claiming that food is political. 

The note posted on Tastebud’s website, which has gone viral, called for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and surfaced weeks after the deaths of anti-ICE protesters Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

“Ice out everywhere,” the notice said.

“Food is political. No one is illegal on stole land. F—k Ice. Abolish Ice.”

The note then started to ramble about issues such as the Epstein files and transgender politics.

“Release the Trump/Epstein files. Free Palestine. Black Lives Matter. Trans women are women. Love your LGBTQ+ neighbors. The Holocaust was real,” the unhinged tirade continued.

Website visitors met with the note before they could subscribe to the restaurant’s newsletter. 

Critics accused the restaurant of choosing politics over pies, with some promising to boycott the establishment.

The restaurant faced a torrent of backlash online and the note has since been toned down.

“Since receiving attention for our statement, we have experienced a surge of hateful, harassing, and abusive reviews, calls, and emails. This is concerning for our staff, our family, and our guests,” a Tastebud spokesperson told Fox News.

The restaurant told the outlet all diners are welcome.

“Food is political because care has become political,” the toned-down note says.

Trump and Epstein mentions have been nixed and the restaurant claims it stands for human rights, equality, science and collective care. 

“Waiting is not caution. Silence is not neutrality. Both are permission,” it says.

“Our country does not survive because it is written down. It survives only if people refuse to endure its unraveling.”

Anti-ICE protester Renee Good was fatally shot by agent Jonathan Ross in Minneapolis last month.

Armed anti-ICE protester and ICU nurse Alex Pretti died after being shot by Customs and Border Protection officials in Minneapolis – two weeks after Good’s death.

The restaurant claimed Good and Pretti had been murdered in plain sight, according to a Jan.30 Facebook post.

Canada’s immigration department says it still expects Ukrainians who fled the war with Russia to return to their home country once the conflict ends.

That’s in spite of comments from Immigration Minister Lena Diab, who recently acknowledged that many Ukrainians who came to Canada on temporary visas are here to stay.

Nearly 300,000 people came to Canada through an emergency work and study visa program that was launched after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost four years ago.

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The Ukrainian Canadian Congress is one of the groups pushing for a dedicated permanent residency stream for these visa-holders, as many don’t have enough points to qualify through Canada’s express entry system.

However, Canada is reducing the number of permanent residents it is admitting compared to recent years and there is an extensive list of applications.

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The wait time for those seeking permanent residency in humanitarian and compassionate cases is more than 10 years.

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Ukrainians can apply for permanent residency through conventional means, and IRCC data shows about 2,500 have received permanent residency.

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Ukrainian visas extended amid uncertainty

Parent Teacher Association officials in one of the wealthiest school districts in the country hosted a training session last month instructing families on how to respond to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity.

The virtual PTA session in Montgomery County, Maryland, was held on Jan. 20 and was headed by Councilwoman Kristin Mink. The meeting was titled “ICE Response & Organizing Tools for PTAs, Parents & Guardians.” 

According to the National Review, Mink has previously hosted multiple sessions on ways schools can equip themselves with “tools to slow ICE down and protect each other.” The training guided parents on how to escort students with illegal immigrant parents, and encouraged volunteers to monitor ICE activity during drop‑off and pickup, and introduced ways to support families affected by ICE arrests and deportations.

During the session, Mink reportedly presented comprehensive “rapid response” guidance she had created and shared publicly three days earlier. 

In one slide, Mink outlined how “White allies” could assist and support the community, advising them not to use whistles to counter “ICE violence,” which has become a widespread form of community resistance. She argued that White individuals should avoid using a tool that, in her view, reinforces authority associated with Whiteness.

“Especially for White allies, whistles can represent a subconscious desire for authority, protection, or control in moments of crisis,” the slide said. 

“But rapid response is not about assuming authority. . . . When we question decisions made by those impacted, we risk centering our own comfort instead of impacted people.”

She added that “What feels ‘activating’ or empowering to some can cause stress to others,” noting that “Black and Brown communities are already overexposed to chronic noise pollution due to racist zoning, redlining, and disinvestment.”

She further addressed, in the slide, how certain characteristics — such as gender, sexuality, and education — align with positions of power or marginalization.

Last September, the Department of Homeland Security clarified that, contrary to what it described as “fearmongering” by sanctuary politicians, “ICE is not conducting enforcement operations at, or ‘raiding,’ schools.”

Mink’s presentation aligns with a recent wave within the anti-ICE movement, where immigrant-led organizations clashed with predominantly White “rapid response” activists over the use of whistles during immigration raids.

Groups like the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network (WAISN) and Maryland-based coalitions argue that blowing whistles is a “White Savior” tactic that creates unnecessary panic and escalates tension.

The Jan. 20 meeting sparked further controversy, with critics arguing that parent-teacher organizations should prioritize academic success rather than engaging in political activism.

“It goes without saying, PTAs should focus on their original intent: students — not injecting inflammatory and divisive political rhetoric into the community,” Kendall Tietz, investigative reporter at Defending Education, told the National Review.

The online presentation was promoted by, and advertised on, the Montgomery County Council of PTAs’ social media. According to the online sign-up sheet, several agencies supported the information session, including education associations, labor unions and immigration advocacy organizations. 

Many local PTAs also promoted the session on their official platforms, including those at Gaithersburg Middle School, Laytonsville Elementary School and Stedwick Elementary School.