Hardeep Singh Chahal, his pregnant wife Kamaldeep Kaur and their three-year-old daughter are celebrating being back home in Penticton after getting their deportation order delayed ‘indefinitely.’
The young Penticton couple were in Surrey up until Monday expecting to be deported back to India on Tuesday, June 13.
But MP Richard Canning’s Penticton constituents’ assistant Jula Sukumar-Dyer shared the good news.
“This is the outcome we were hoping for,” said Sukamar-Dyer. “The community did an amazing job advocating for them.”
She confirmed the family came back to Penticton on Monday night. The Penticton Sikh Temple is helping them with their lawyer and deportation fees and other support.
The Regulated Immigration Consultants of Canada (RICC) is now working with the family in hopes of getting them temporary residency with the goal of getting permanent residency status.
The family’s daughter was born here and they want their baby to be Canadian, too.
Cannings said he had spoken to federal immigration on this matter twice as well as the ministry of public safety.
“We have received a lot of positive emails from members of the public, Hardeep’s employer and others in support of this family staying here,” said Cannings.
In fact, more than 100 emails of support have been sent to Cannings’ office which is a testament to this family’s character, said Cannings.
“All those emails have been sent along to the Ministry of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship to show the level of support for them.”
READ MORE: Community, MP rally around family ordered deported
Sukumar-Dyer has been working hard to stay the deportation.
“They are very much contributing members of our community. Their employers are advocating hard for them to stay. We are anxiously awaiting to hear from the CBSA (Canadian Border Services Agency) on the permanent residency status,” she said.
Hardeep’s employer at Lake Breeze Winery in Naramata said he has come to rely on Hardeep as his main tractor guy in the vineyard who has been reliable, keen to learn and hard working.
“He came to work for me two years ago and he’s been stellar,” said Pierre Levesque, who is the vineyard manager.
“This is so crazy that when we are in great need of good vineyard workers, the government wants to send him away,” he said. Levesque has received around 90 applications to fill Hardeep’s job but none have his qualifications.
Kamaldeep had worked at the Penticton Wal-Mart.
The couple also had been doing volunteer work at Penticton Regional Hospital until they were ordered to be deported.
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