Quotes of the Day

Portuguese immigrants have long found a friendly home in Canada; Toronto alone boasts a vibrant Portuguese community of some 170,000. Yet some claim that Canada's new Conservative government, which was voted in on Jan. 23, is taking a tougher line on illegal immigration.

In March alone, Portuguese officials say, 217 Portuguese citizens have been forcibly returned from Canada. "We went seven years ago as tourists and we just stayed," admits deportee José Luis Ferreira, who had put his kids in Canadian schools, found steady work in construction, and settled into Toronto. Now he says he's heading back to the farm in north central Portugal. Canadian officials won't confirm recent numbers, but claim that on an annual basis, deportations of Portuguese illegals are actually down from last year. Mario Silva, a Portuguese-Canadian Member of Parliament from Toronto, says "The government is not targeting the Portuguese," says Silva, "but certainly a lot of the deportations that happened since it came into office were from the Portuguese community." So many, in fact, that Portuguese Foreign Minister Diogo Freitas do Amaral went to Canada last month to argue for a more conciliatory approach. Monte Solberg, Canada's new Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, hasn't announced any explicit changes of policy, though he noted that "people should come here via regular means."

Of course, with immigration a touchy political issue everywhere, it's hard for Portugal to insist on any kind of moral high ground. Indeed, Portugal has already expelled 574 illegals already this year, twice last year's rate, and mostly from Africa."People are saying 'How can Canada do this to us?'," says Rui Marques, Portugal's High Commissioner for Immigration and Ethnic Minorities. "But we're doing the same thing to illegals here."

• JAMES GRAFF
• Is Canada targeting the Portuguese in a crackdown on illegal immigrants?