For years, progressive advocacy groups, including the Migrant Rights Network, lobbied for a comprehensive regularization program that would grant legal status to undocumented and non-status migrants living and working in Canada’s shadows. While progressive elements of the Liberal base expected Carney to deliver on this compassionate reform, his administration instead executed a sharp pivot toward restriction and border enforcement.
Rather than broad regularization, the Carney government’s 2026–2028 Immigration Levels Plan aggressively scaled back targets, slashing permanent resident admissions to 380,000 annually. The administration introduced severe caps on temporary residents (aiming to reduce them to less than 5% of the total population by 2028), restricted Post-Graduation Work Permits, and significantly bolstered funding for Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) enforcement. The few “in-Canada” pathways announced were largely superficial, fast-tracking individuals who already had status rather than helping undocumented workers out of legal limbo.