Elected leaders in Toronto are demanding ICE agents stay away from their city — despite the U.S. agency never conducting, nor planning to conduct, immigration enforcement on Canadian soil.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow on Thursday successfully pushed a motion in the city council that opposes any deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents within Toronto and directs government officials to refuse assistance to the agency ahead of the FIFA World Cup games. The vote came days after a U.S. consulate in Toronto made clear that the agency had zero plans of enforcing immigration law in Canada, a foreign country.
“ICE has no place in this city,” Chow said Thursday in a social media video released by her office. “Toronto is about to welcome thousands and thousands of families because of FIFA World Cup, where everyone belongs. Everyone is welcome.”
“So stay out, ICE,” the liberal mayor continued. “We do not need you here.”
Chow’s office did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Chow’s demand was followed with the city council’s near-unanimous approval of an anti-ICE motion that opposes the agency’s involvement in Toronto, directs city staff to avoid assisting ICE agents, requests federal officials to reject the deployment of ICE agents in the city, among other anti-ICE directives ahead of the FIFA 2026 World Cup. The vote passed with only one council member opposing it.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is slated to begin this summer, with games to be played in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The event, which takes place every four years, is considered the largest, most-watched sporting event in the world.
The DCNF reached out to the other 20 Toronto City Council members who voted in favor of the motion. Only two members gave responses.
A staffer for Councillor Lily Cheng provided a link that summarized the motion, which includes a statement that claims “ICE is known to operate beyond American borders, including at times within Canada.”
Toronto Deputy Mayor Paul Ainslie provided a statement, seemingly lamenting that ICE has a presence in Canada’s major cities.
“According to ICE’s own website, the agency has established offices in five Canadian cities: Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Ottawa,” Ainslie, who had seconded Chow’s motion, stated to the DCNF. “According to Canadian immigration and legal experts I have spoken with, they have said [his link] the offices are not authorized to carry out independent investigations or carry out immigration enforcement. But they are here…..”
ICE technically has offices in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Ottawa. However, these offices belong to Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a component of ICE within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). HSI has more than 90 offices in over 50 countries around the world, according to its website.
Just like in other countries, this sub-agency works with its Canadian law enforcement counterparts strictly to combat transnational crime. It does not enforce immigration law within Canada and is not even authorized to carry out independent investigations in the country, according to the very article shared by Ainslie.
“ICE offices in Canada are staffed by HSI personnel only,” an ICE spokesperson confirmed to the DCNF. “HSI personnel in Canada have not and do not conduct immigration enforcement actions within Canada.”
Toronto leaders were previously told that ICE is not conducting immigration enforcement in the city, or anywhere else in Canada.
“Regarding the March 18 motion ‘No ICE in Toronto,’ we wish to inform you that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has never planned to deploy agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to Canada for FIFA World Cup 2026,” Baxter Hunt, the U.S. consul general in Toronto, explained in a letter to the councillors several days before their vote.
Hunt’s letter went on to list some of the major accomplishments made by the HSI-Canada partnership over the years, including the seizure of 106 illegal firearms, more than 700 charges against 20 individuals for trafficking illicit substances, the takedown of a major international drug trafficking operation in Ontario, the identification of hundreds of child victims of sexual exploitation, among other big victories.
Cheng’s office did not respond to a follow-up request for clarification on whether Thursday’s motion pertained to HSI’s work on transnational crime.
When asked if he was concerned that HSI’s work could potentially encroach into immigration enforcement or whether he opposed HSI’s presence entirely, the deputy mayor provided a clear answer.
“We are completely opposed to them even being on Canadian soil,” Ainslie told the DCNF.
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