Refugee/Migrant Crisis

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Video of masked 'deportation' protest at London mall goes viral
A small protest at a London mall has drawn a big response online.

Author of the article:Dale Carruthers
Published Dec 23, 2024 • 2 minute read

A group of masked people were seen at a London mall holding up a “Mass Deportations Now” sign
A group of masked people were seen at a London mall holding up a “Mass Deportations Now” sign
A small protest at a London mall has drawn a big response online.


A video posted on social media showing a small group of protesters at White Oaks Mall holding a large sign that reads “Mass deportation now” has gone viral.

The eight-second clip shows the demonstrators, all of them male with their faces covered, holding the banner near the Tim Hortons in the food court while holiday shoppers pass by at the Wellington Road shopping centre.

The video and an accompanying photo of the protesters holding the sign outside an entrance to the mall was posted on Reddit and other social media sites, where it had generated more than 500,000 views and thousands of comments as of Mnday.

The protest also drew the attention of London police.

Officers were called at 12:30 p.m., but participants left before they arrived so the call was cancelled, a police spokesperson said Monday.


Mall security referred all inquiries about the incident to mall management. The management office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The video also was shared on Instagram by SixbuzzTV, an account with 2.4 million followers that has a history of promoting right-wing content and misinformation.

The post sparked fierce debate online, with most commenters defending the demonstrators and a few others denouncing their actions.

“Saying what we are all thinking,” user death_before_dishonour wrote.

Another user, tonilombardo, commented: “It’s sad . . . as a child of immigrant parents who worked hard to fit in. I never thought I’d say this but. Go home. Leave Canada to those who genuinely want to come here and make a good life and new beginnings, leaving behind their countries way of thinking.”


A similar protest last month at a Hamilton mall drew a rebuke from community leaders and politicians.
A photo from the Hamilton protest shows more than a dozen black-clad demonstrators holding a “Mass deportation now” sign at the Jackson Square Mall on Nov. 15.
The protests come amid rising anti-immigrant sentiment in Canada and the return to the White House of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to conduct mass deportations upon taking office in January. A recent poll by Focus Canada found 58 per cent of Canadians interviewed believe the country accepts too many immigrants, a 32 per cent increase since 2023.

dcarruthers@postmedia.com
 
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Again the orange man was right.

India alleges widespread trafficking of international students through Canada to U.S.

OTTAWA - Indian law enforcement agencies say they are investigating alleged links between dozens of colleges in Canada and two "entities" in Mumbai accused of illegally ferrying students across the Canada-United States border.
A news release Tuesday from India's Enforcement Directorate -- a multi-disciplinary organization that investigates money laundering and foreign exchange laws -- said a multi-city search has revealed "incriminating" evidence of "human trafficking."

OTTAWA -
Indian law enforcement agencies say they are investigating alleged links between dozens of colleges in Canada and two "entities" in Mumbai accused of illegally ferrying students across the Canada-United States border.

A news release Tuesday from India's Enforcement Directorate -- a multi-disciplinary organization that investigates money laundering and foreign exchange laws -- said a multi-city search has revealed "incriminating" evidence of "human trafficking."

The allegations have not been tested in court. The federal government, the RCMP, and Indian high commission in Ottawa, and multiple Canadian college officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The U.S. embassy said Thursday it had no comment.

Indian officials say they launched their investigation after Jagdish Baldevbhai Patel, 39, was found dead along with his wife and two children near a border crossing between Manitoba and the United States on Jan. 19, 2022.

Last month, a Minnesota jury found two men guilty -- Steve Shand of Florida and Harshkumar Patel, an Indian national arrested in Chicago -- on four counts related to bringing unauthorized people into the U.S., transporting them and profiting from it.

Patel is a common name in India, and the family was not related to the accused.

Prosecutors said Harshkumar Patel co-ordinated a sophisticated operation while Shand was a driver. Shand was to pick up 11 Indian migrants on the Minnesota side of the border, prosecutors said. Only seven survived the foot crossing. Canadian authorities found the Patel family later that morning, dead from the cold.

Harshkumar Patel and Shand have not yet been sentenced and might appeal.

The Tuesday news release said officials launched an investigation following a report filed against Bhavesh Ashokbhai Patel, who allegedly arranged the travel of the family.

Each member of the family was allegedly charged the equivalent of between $93,000 and $102,000 to cross into the United States from Canada, the directorate claimed.

The incident has been called the Dingucha case in India, named after the village in the Gujarat state of western India from which the family originated.

The Enforcement Directorate said it searched eight places last week in Mumbai, Nagpur in Maharashtra state, and Gandhinagar and Vadodara in Gujarat.

It also claims that Bhavesh Ashokbhai Patel allegedly arranged people to get admissions to Canadian colleges, which helped in getting student visas. The news release did not specify the schools alleged to be involved.

"Once the individuals or students reach Canada, instead of joining the college, they illegally crossed the U.S.-Canada Border and never joined college(s) in Canada," it said.

The fee paid toward college admission was then returned, it added.

The search has found that about 25,000 students were referred by one "entity" and over 10,000 students by another to various colleges outside India every year, the release claimed.

The network has about 1,700 agents in Gujarat and around 3,500 across India, of which 800 are active, it alleged.

The release claims that "around 112 colleges based in Canada" have entered into agreement with one entity, while "more than 150" colleges have done so with another entity.

It is unclear from the release whether any colleges have ties to both entities.

Anil Pratham, a former high-ranking police official in Gujarat who has since retired, was involved in investigating the case as far back as January 2022 when the Patel family died.

He told The Canadian Press his team looked at paperwork, such as certificates and documents used by students to apply to colleges and universities abroad.

Police then contacted villagers through various societies, asking them for help.

"We conveyed to the villagers that you should come out and tell (us) who are the victims and who are the agents who live there," he said in an interview from Gujarat. "This helped us in our investigation."

The process took nearly three years because the first step is to establish the crime, charge, investigate and finalize those charges, he said.

Police in Gujarat got help from their counterparts in Canada and New York, Pratham said.

He also had advice for those wanting to go abroad to study or work.

"There is a legal way of going from India to whichever country one wants," he said.

News of the Indian investigation comes amid tensions with the U.S. over border security, a federal rethink of international-student policy, and diplomatic tensions with India over New Delhi's alleged targeting of Sikh activists in Canada.

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has threatened wounding tariffs on Canadian goods if Ottawa does not sufficiently crack down on migrants and drugs crossing into the U.S. illegally, leading Ottawa to earmark $1.3 billion over six years to address border security.

Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc and Foreign Minister Melanie Joly travelled to Florida on Thursday to talk about border security and trade with the incoming U.S. president.

Before that, Canada expelled six Indian diplomats in October, over allegations they used their position to collect information on Canadians and then passed it on to criminal gangs who targeted the individuals directly.

At the time, Canada also alleged India's home affairs minister ordered intelligence-gathering operations against Sikh separatists who advocate for an independent country called Khalistan to be carved out of India. New Delhi rejects Ottawa's claims.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 26, 2024.
 
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Man indicted in burning death of woman inside a New York City subway train, prosecutors say
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Published Dec 27, 2024 • 3 minute read

NEW YORK (AP) — The man accused of burning a woman to death inside a New York City subway train has been indicted on state charges, a prosecutor said on Friday.


The development comes days after Sebastian Zapeta’s arrest and subsequent police questioning, in which authorities say he claimed not to know what had happened although he identified himself in photos and surveillance video showing the fire being lit.

Zapeta’s indictment will remain under seal until he is arraigned on the new charges, likely in a few weeks, as is standard in New York. He remains jailed at the city’s Rikers Island complex.

The harrowing episode Sunday morning on a stopped F train at Brooklyn’s Coney Island station has renewed concerns about safety in the nation’s largest mass transit system.

Zapeta, 33, who federal immigration officials said is a Guatemalan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally, was initially charged in a criminal complaint with murder and arson.


Such filings are often a first step in the criminal process because, in New York, all felony cases require a grand jury indictment to proceed to trial unless a defendant waives that requirement.

According to prosecutors, Zapeta approached the woman who may have been sleeping, set her clothing on fire with a lighter and then fanned the flames with a shirt. She has yet to be identified.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

NEW YORK (AP) — A court hearing is scheduled Friday for the man accused of setting a woman on fire on a New York City subway train and fanning the flames with a shirt as she burned to death.

Sebastian Zapeta has been charged with two counts of murder and one count of arson for the apparently random attack, which occurred early Sunday morning on a train stopped in Brooklyn.


The 33-year-old man made his first court appearance earlier in the week. He was not required to enter a plea, and his attorney has not responded to requests for comment.

The victim has not yet been publicly identified by police.

Zapeta, who federal immigration officials said is a Guatemalan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally, has been jailed at the city’s Rikers Island complex.

Authorities say Zapeta approached the woman, who might have been sleeping on the train at the Coney Island station stop, and set her clothing on fire with a lighter. He waved a shirt at her to fan the fire, causing her to become engulfed in flames, prosecutor Ari Rottenberg said during the court appearance Tuesday.

Zapeta then sat on a bench on the platform and watched as she burned, prosecutors allege. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.


Police took Zapeta into custody while he was riding a train on the same line later that day.

Zapeta told investigators that he drinks a lot of liquor and did not know what had happened, according to Rottenberg. However, Zapeta did identify himself in photos and surveillance video showing the fire being lit, the prosecutor said.

A Brooklyn address for Zapeta released by police after his arrest matches a shelter that provides housing and substance abuse support.

Federal immigration officials said he was deported in 2018 but returned to the U.S. illegally sometime after that.
 

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Illegal immigrant 'giggled' while admitting to gunpoint kidnapping of Texas woman
Author of the article:postmedia News
Published Jan 01, 2025 • Last updated 1 day ago • 2 minute read

Eduardo Javier Ordonez Godoy, 35, was arrested in Oklahoma City on Christmas Day.
Eduardo Javier Ordonez Godoy, 35, was arrested in Oklahoma City on Christmas Day.
Authorities said a Honduras gang member in the U.S. illegally “giggled” while admitting to kidnapping a young Texas woman at gunpoint and threatening to “prostitute her” and sell her organs.


Eduardo Javier Ordonez Godoy, 35, was busted after police said a 22-year-old woman was abducted by a masked man at 4:45 a.m. on Christmas Eve before being driven around for about an hour and eventually being left tied to a tree, according to documents obtained by Fox 4 News, per the New York Post.

If the allegations are proven true, it won’t be Godoy’s first rodeo. He has been arrested for similar crimes and deported back to Honduras, where he admitted he is affiliated with a violent gang, police told the outlet.

The illegal immigrant allegedly confessed to the abduction, showing no remorse along the way.

“He smirked a lot, he giggled, and, you know, was almost proud of what he did,” Haltom City Police Sgt. Rick Alexander told FOX 4 News.


“He claims he’s just a thief. He wants money,” Alexander added. “But, you know, in this case, clearly he went beyond that and brought a firearm into it.”

Godoy allegedly abducted the woman and forced her into the back seat of her car as she was headed to work in Haltom City, outside Fort Worth, police said.

He forced her to withdraw money and drove her around while threatening to “sell her organs” and “prostitute her,” say the charging documents.

The accused allegedly drove to an apartment complex in the area, where he tied the woman’s hands to a tree with her shoelaces and left her there as he fled in her car.

Police said the woman managed to free herself and called police.

She was unharmed but told officers that she feared for her life.



The woman managed to free herself and called the police.

“Obviously she was terrified,” Alexander said. “No one expects this kind of thing walking outside early in the morning on Christmas Eve.”

The stolen vehicle was entered into law enforcement databases and recovered from a parking lot in Oklahoma City, some 321 kilometres away.

Godoy was arrested and charged with unauthorized use of a vehicle, use of a firearm while committing a felony and misdemeanors.

He’s also facing aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery charges in Haltom City.

Godoy has an active ICE detainer hold because of his immigration status, police said.
 

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