Does Canada have a criminal database where you can look up offenders like you can here in the US?

Is this news article for or against Illegal Immigration in the U.S.A?

• AP IMPACT: Immigrants face detentions, few rights http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2009/03/15/ap/us/d96ukuig0.txt By MICHELLE ROBERTS America's detention system for immigrants has mushroomed in the last decade, a costly building boom that was supposed to sweep up criminals and ensure that undocumented immigrants were quickly shown the door. Instead, an Associated Press computer analysis of every person being held on a recent Sunday night shows that most did not have a criminal record and many were not about to leave the country _ voluntarily or via deportation. An official Immigration and Customs Enforcement database, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, showed a U.S. detainee population of exactly 32,000 on the evening of Jan. 25. The data show that 18,690 immigrants had no criminal conviction, not even for illegal entry or low-level crimes like trespassing. More than 400 of those with no criminal record had been incarcerated for at least a year. A dozen had been held for three years or more; one man from China had been locked up for more than five years. Nearly 10,000 had been in custody longer than 31 days _ the average detention stay that ICE cites as evidence of its effective detention management. Especially tough bail conditions are exacerbated by disregard or bending of the rules regarding how long immigrants can be detained. Based on a 2001 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, ICE has about six months to deport or release immigrants after their case is decided. But immigration lawyers say that deadline is routinely missed. In the system snapshot provided to the AP, 950 people were in that category. The detainee buildup began in the mid 1990s, long before the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Since 2003, though, Congress has doubled to $1.7 billion the amount dedicated to imprisoning immigrants, as furor over "criminal aliens" intertwined with post-9/11 fears and anti-immigrant political rhetoric. But the dragnet has come to include not only terrorism suspects and cop killers, but an honors student who was raised in Orlando, Fla.; a convenience store clerk who begged to go back to Canada; and a Pentecostal minister who was forcibly drugged by ICE agents after he asked to contact his wife, according to court records. Immigration lawyers note that substantial numbers of detainees, from 177 countries in the data provided, are not illegal immigrants at all. Many of the longest-term non-criminal detainees are asylum seekers fighting to stay here because they fear being killed in their home country. Others are longtime residents who may be eligible to stay under other criteria, or whose applications for permanent residency were lost or mishandled, the lawyers say. Still other long-term detainees include people who can't be deported because their home country won't accept them or people who seemingly have been forgotten in the behemoth system, where 58 percent have no lawyers or anyone else advocating on their behalf. ICE says detention is the best way to guarantee that immigrants attend court hearings and leave the country when ordered. "It's ensuring compliance, and if you look at the stats, for folks who are in detention, the stats are pretty darn high," said ICE spokeswoman Cori Bassett. By comparison though, most criminal suspects, even sometimes those accused of heinous offenses, are entitled to bail. For detainees, ICE agents make an initial determination whether someone is eligible for bond. Federal law says most criminals, some asylum seekers, arriving immigrants who have problems with their documentation and those recently ordered removed from the country must remain in detention. "We're immigrants, and it makes it seem like it's worse than a criminal," said Sarjina Emy, a 20-year-old former honors student who spent nearly two years in a Florida lockup because her parents' asylum claim was denied when she was a child. "I always thought America does so much for justice. I really thought you get a fair trial. You actually go to court. (U.S. authorities) know what they are doing. Now, I figured out that it only works for criminal citizens." Some advocates and lawyers complain that ICE often stretches the definition of non-bondable categories to keep immigrants in custody. Immigrants can appeal adverse determinations, but while their claim works through the court system, they remain jailed. For example, Zoubir Bouchikhi, an Algerian imam who has lived legally in the United States for 11 years, said by phone from a Houston detention center that he was placed in custody early this year and classified as "an arriving alien," making him ineligible for bail. A homeowner with several U.S.-born children, Bouchikhi said he last entered the United States in 2006, on a legal visa. The use of detention to ensure immigrants show up for immigration court comes at a high cost compared to alternatives like electronic ankle moni

• Answer:

  The article is not about illegal immigration, it is about HUMAN rights, illegal or legal. If you read well, not all detainees are illegals, and even if they ask to be deported, they do not deport them after all, costing $$$ to the US. The article is trying to show that the goverment incarcerate a bunch of immigrants, without even bothering to prove their legal status: "The data show that 18,690 immigrants had no criminal conviction, not even for illegal entry or low-level crimes like trespassing" But wait a minute...if you search on YA, in the immigration section, you will see a bunch of people that are xenophobic, and will argue that: illegals do not pay taxes, are lazy, get free education, are here ILLEGALY, are CRIMINALS...but the REAL DATA presents a different scenario. 18,690 did not had a crimal conviction (included entering illegaly), they do have jobs like any normal american=do not take welfare, so...why they took them away and incarcerated them without attorneys, bail, or even a hearing=why deny them some of the basic rights? the legal system just do not want anyone that knows a second language, that is brown or has other religion in this country...if you are different=you have to get out of the country asap, even if you are here legally. Look at this: "El tercero le fue incautado entre el 1992 y 1993 por las autoridades migratorias estadounidenses en el aeropuerto internacional de San Juan, Puerto Rico, para verificar su validez." this is an article about a puetorican that got stuck 11 years in dominican republic because the goverment (US) took his passport in the airport and in the US embassy denied all the evidence he had to prove he was a puertorican (all puertoricans are citizens)... is not the only case.