The Federal Court has chided immigration officials for refusing to let a 66-year-old stateless man be a permanent resident on humanitarian grounds even though there is no prospect of deporting him to any country.

In quashing the immigration decision and sending the case back to the department for reconsideration, Justice E. Susan Elliott said Francisco Suarez Abeleira can’t continue to be trapped in “limbo” in Canada and deserves a chance to have a new life.

Abeleira was born in Vigo, Spain, but his parents fled the Franco dictatorship in the 1950s, shortly after his birth and the family moved to Mexico. Spain has no record of his birth, likely because he was never registered or the record was destroyed during the dictatorship.

After spending his formative years in Mexico and most of his adulthood in the United States, he was caught by American border officials in 2009. After being released from immigration detention, he crossed the unguarded land border between Vermont and Quebec seeking asylum in Canada a year later.

Although the refugee judge accepted he was stateless, Abeleira was found not to be at risk of persecution in the U.S. and his claim was rejected. A subsequent humanitarian application was also refused.

“The only four countries to which Mr. Abeleira has any connection at all (Canada being the fourth such country) do not want him because he has no status in any of them. Yet, the Immigration Minister says Mr. Abeleira has not shown sufficient humanitarian and compassionate grounds to be permitted to apply for permanent residence from within Canada,” Elliott wrote in a recent decision.

“He must therefore apply for that status from another country. The conundrum is that there does not appear to be any other country who will accept him. Not only is Mr. Abeleira in a state of legal limbo, there is no way out of it. He appears trapped in an endless loop of ‘you have to leave Canada to apply for permanent residence,’ however ‘you can’t leave Canada because no country will take you.’”

Abeleira declined the Star’s interview request through his lawyer in Toronto, Daniel Radin.

According to the court, Abeleira was orphaned at the age of 3 when his parents died in a car accident in Mexico. He was later raised by neighbours until he turned 12 and ran away allegedly because of their mistreatment of him.

He began making a living smuggling goods across the U.S.-Mexican border, selling American electronics and clothing in Mexico before he moved to the U.S. in his late teens and lived as an undocumented person, said the court.

Abeleira told the court he moved to New York City in 1975 and purchased a birth certificate in the name of Angel Lagomasini, a legal U.S. citizen who lived in Puerto Rico and died in 2008. He used the birth certificate to obtain a driver’s licence, social security number and a U.S. passport.

Under his assumed identity, he obtained a high school diploma, got a bachelor’s degree in education in 1989, and a master of science degree in education in 1995. He worked for the New York City Board of Education for almost two decades from 1987 to 2006.

In 2009, he and his second wife divorced when she discovered that his purported identity was false. He was later arrested at JFK International Airport when he was leaving for Spain where he taught English and Spanish as a freelance instructor. He confessed to the authorities his identity was false.

Abeleira was ordered removed from the U.S. and detained in an immigration holding centre until late 2009 when it was determined that there is no prospect to remove him to either Spain or Mexico. A letter from the Spanish consulate concluded he had no status in Spain.

Abeleira’s humanitarian application in Canada was based on the grounds he could not be removed to the U.S. and would face undue hardship if he continued to be held stateless in Canada. The application was first rejected in 2014, but the decision was successfully challenged in court and sent back for reconsideration. The application was refused again last year.

“Mr. Abeleira’s (humanitarian) application submissions centred on his statelessness and especially the fact that he cannot be removed from Canada. The officer never determined whether Mr. Abeleira can be removed to another country in order to apply for permanent residence from abroad,” wrote Elliott.

“Whether the country of origin was Spain or Mexico or the United States — the country of his last habitual residence — the circumstances are shown on the record to be that Mr. Abeleira cannot be removed to any of those countries.”

Although Elliott fell short on ordering the government to approve Abeleira’s humanitarian application, she did have some strong words for Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen.

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“While I am very mindful and sympathetic to the legal limbo within which Mr. Abeleira finds himself, I am satisfied that this matter will turn on the facts once they are properly considered,” said Elliott.

“I do, however, strongly urge the (immigration) minister to come to grips with whether there is a country to which Mr. Abeleira may be deported . . . If there is no such country, then I strongly urge the minister and Mr. Abeleira to engage in meaningful discussions to try to find a way to resolve this application without the ongoing intervention of the court.”

Neither the Immigration Department or the minister would comment on the court decision when reached by the Star.

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