After being despatched again to the U.S. for the sixth time in two years, American citizen Junseo Hagh returned to Canada to “end what he began.”
That is in response to a search warrant obtained by CBC Information from a Canada Border Providers Company (CBSA) investigator, which alleges Hagh additionally doubtless smuggled a gun into British Columbia earlier this 12 months.
The warrant alleges that Hagh was deported from Canada six occasions however returned undetected every time alongside the B.C.-Washington state border.
The allegations detailed in it haven’t been confirmed.
“The query clearly that’s raised is, how did he get again into Canada?” asks Toronto-based immigration lawyer Evan Inexperienced, who can be capable of practise within the U.S.
“That is the large problem as a result of clearly this isn’t somebody who we wish to be in Canada given his background.”
Hagh, 21, who additionally goes by Ethan, has not been charged with any firearm offences however is at the moment in custody dealing with costs of returning to Canada with out authorization after a elimination order and failing to seem to find out the proper to enter Canada.
His lawyer, Roy Kim, informed CBC Information Hagh has but to enter a plea and declined to remark additional.
Hagh served jail time twice, in August and December 2024, for a similar offences.
Hagh’s quite a few deportation orders have puzzled immigration consultants amid U.S.-Canada tensions and heightened scrutiny of the world’s longest undefended border. Paperwork reveal Hagh is adamant on returning to Canada due to the fond reminiscences he had within the northern nation.
“This can be a extremely uncommon case,” Inexperienced mentioned.
Axe pulled out in battle at SkyTrain station
Hagh is non-verbal, has psychological well being points and has been homeless since he was 15, residing on the streets of Los Angeles, New York and B.C., in response to the warrant.
He first got here to Canada as a toddler beneath a research allow.
In December 2022, after his allow had expired, he pulled out an axe throughout a battle at a SkyTrain station in Burnaby, B.C., in response to the search warrant.
The battle was deemed consensual, and so Hagh wasn’t charged, however he was arrested on an immigration warrant.
Immigration officers issued Hagh an exclusion order days later, banning him from returning to Canada for one 12 months.
However he violated the order and got here again to Canada shortly afterwards. He was issued a deportation order in February 2023, completely barring him from the nation.
What adopted was months of a cat and mouse recreation between Hagh and border officers, in response to the search warrant. Hagh would enter Canada with out authorization, be despatched again to the U.S. after which would head again north.
In whole, the search warrant says Hagh has been kicked out of Canada six occasions. He would, at occasions, return to Canada inside days after being deported.
He was deported on July 2, 2024, then deported once more 16 days later, in response to the warrant.
U.S. immigration lawyer Christine Jurusik says she’s alarmed {that a} U.S. citizen was capable of return to Canada quite a few occasions in violation of repeated deportation orders however says his case is an anomaly.
‘He continues to return’
There was no report of him getting into Canada then as a result of he did not undergo a port of entry, in response to his December 2024 sentencing. The Vancouver provincial courtroom offered CBC Information with audio recordings of the listening to.
“He is aware of he is not purported to be in Canada with out authorization, but he continues to return. Hopefully, an extended type of incarceration will deter him,” mentioned the Crown prosecutor.
Christine Jurusik, a U.S. immigration lawyer licensed to practise in Ontario and New York state, mentioned she’s not stunned that Hagh was capable of enter undetected.
“Our border with the US is basically undefended and unmonitored. So there are many locations that folks can cross with out being intercepted by CBSA,” she mentioned.
“Somebody like this who has the intention to be in Canada and actually desires to be right here, can discover methods.”
RCMP officers within the Windsor, Ont. detachment are patrolling the Canada-U.S. border in methods they’ve by no means carried out earlier than ever since Donald Trump pushed for a rise in safety between the neighbouring nations.
In December 2024, Choose James Sutherland mentioned Hagh had a “sympathetic background,” however nonetheless gave him the 120-day sentence really helpful by the Crown.
“The variety of violations of the immigration orders, the short succession by which they have been violated required this courtroom to render a sentence … that regulation breakers could be assured that the courtroom will hand out sentences that present severe penalties for violations of this nature,” Sutherland mentioned.
Hagh was final deported on Jan. 8, 2025, however was seen crossing illegally into Canada the subsequent day, after shopping for firearms ammunition from Bellingham, Wash., in response to the search warrant.
Cpl. Arash Seyed with the RCMP’s federal policing Pacific area unit informed CBC Information that U.S. Border Patrol brokers arrested Hagh on Jan. 9 on the American aspect, after Mounties have been informed he was trying to enter Canada.
Seyed mentioned he would not know whether or not Hagh “legally or illegally” received into Canada after that.
An RCMP officer noticed him at a procuring centre in Burnaby on Jan. 16, arrested him for an impressive immigration warrant and took him to the Immigration Holding Centre in Surrey, the warrant mentioned.
‘There isn’t any gun in right here’
A knife, 5 firearm cartridges and a receipt from a Bellingham pawn store that confirmed he purchased about $90 price of ammunition on Jan. 9 have been discovered amongst Hagh’s issues, in response to the warrant.
Hagh mentioned he did not convey a gun into Canada.
“There isn’t any gun in right here. I can let you know that,” he wrote on a bit of paper to investigators, in response to the warrant.
“No remark, aside from that I can let you know honestly that there isn’t a gun.”
When Hagh was deported on Jan. 8, he informed a CBSA officer that he needed to return to Canada for 2 months “to complete what he began,” in response to the warrant.
“He didn’t specify what this was, however acknowledged that he felt that he needed to do a ‘reset’ of himself and located that Canada was a greater a part of his life that he needed to revisit after which return to the U.S.,” the CBSA officer mentioned within the warrant.
The officer alleges Hagh mentioned he would purchase a gun when he returned to the U.S. for defense however that he would go away it previous to returning to Canada.
“I imagine that firearm cartridges solely have one goal: for use with a firearm,” the officer wrote within the warrant. “I imagine that Mr. Hagh smuggled a firearm with him when he entered Canada, regardless of his claims on the contrary.”
Hagh’s lawyer informed the courtroom throughout Hagh’s sentencing in 2024 that he excelled academically whereas attending secondary faculty in B.C. earlier than issues took a flip for the more severe.
He needed to return to B.C. “to come back to reconciliation,” his lawyer mentioned.
The CBSA was licensed to go looking Hagh’s cellphone for proof of buying a firearm, however he has not been charged with any firearm offences.
CBC requested the Public Prosecution Service of Canada if it had acquired a suggestion to cost Hagh. It mentioned it “doesn’t converse to a matter until or till costs are laid.”
Case not a part of wider development: knowledgeable
Jurusik mentioned Hagh’s case raises issues however is an anomaly.
“We’ve not had an enormous threat of People fleeing or attempting to come back to Canada illegally. So whereas that is alarming, I do not assume it is a development, and it would not trigger concern the best way the safety on the southern border causes issues to Americans the place they do have a lot increased numbers and incidents of issues like this occurring,” Jurusik mentioned.
“I feel CBSA is doing an excellent job and that that is in all probability only a distinctive scenario.”
CBSA declined an interview request and mentioned it could not present particulars on particular person circumstances.
CBSA and different regulation enforcement companies have been offered elevated help in response to Donald Trump’s tariff threats and his demand that Canada do extra on the border to cease the circulate of medicine and unlawful migration.
In December 2024, the federal authorities introduced a $1.3 billion plan to strengthen border safety.
Figures for 2025 have but to be launched, however in 2024, the CBSA eliminated greater than 16,000 inadmissible international nationals from the nation, in response to agency data. About 600 have been Americans.
Whereas it is unclear how Hagh received into the nation so many occasions, courtroom information present the timing labored in his favour.
After being issued a deportation order in August 2024, the plan was for the CBSA to drop him off on the border and for a household good friend to select him up on the Blaine aspect, a Crown prosecutor informed the choose throughout Hagh’s December 2024 sentencing.
However Hagh was launched days sooner than scheduled, and so nobody was there to select him up, in response to the listening to.
Hagh contacted his household in California after his launch and informed them he did not wish to return to the state, the Crown mentioned.
Then, in September 2024, the Crown says an off-duty CBSA officer noticed Hagh charging his cellphone at a Save On Meals grocery retailer in Burnaby,
The officer recorded a video of Hagh on this cellphone and contacted on-duty officers.
“However by the point they arrived at Save On, Mr. Hagh was now not there,” the Crown mentioned.
Hagh is in custody on the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam, B.C., and is due in courtroom in July.
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