Canada Orders Deportation for US Soldier Who Fled Military to Avoid Iraq War
Canada has ordered the deportation of a female soldier who fled the U.S. military in order to avoid the war in Iraq, officials said Thursday.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s spokeswoman, Alexis Pavlich, said that Citizenship and Immigration Canada has ordered Kimberly Rivera to leave the country by Sept. 20.
Rivera is meeting with her lawyers to determine her next step and was unavailable to comment, according to Michelle Robidoux spokeswoman for the War Resisters Support Campaign.
“We are very upset about this decision,” said Robidoux. “The cases of war resisters are not being looked at properly. Kenney continues to intervene by telling immigration officers to red flag US soldiers who are applying for asylum as criminally inadmissible. We think that has tainted the whole process and the government should withdraw that directive.”
Robidoux said they will likely call on Kenney to grant the family humanitarian and compassionate consideration and allow them to stay.
Rivera, a 30-year-old Army private, served in Iraq in 2006. She said she became disillusioned with the mission. She crossed the border into Canada while on leave in February 2007, after she was ordered to serve another tour there.
After arriving in Canada on leave, she applied for refugee status.