The South Sudanese man who allegedly presented fraudulent documents for a Canadian student visa will stay in custody.
Jonathan Nicola was attending Catholic Central High School in Windsor when he applied for a U.S visitor visa and was denied because his fingerprints matched a previous application that indicated he was 29 years old and not 17. This information was shared with the Canadian Border Service Agency and Nicola was detained.
At a hearing last week Nicola told the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada that he does not know how old he actually is.
"Looking back to my family, my mother, when I was growing up my mother she was trying really hard for us, like to go to the school, she always keep telling us different ages, in like she told the schools because, because she do not want us to drop out," Nicola said according to the hearing transcripts.
Board member Valerie Currie decided to detain Nicola on the grounds of misrepresentation and possible flight risk. Currie said she believes Nicola lied in order to obtain access to Catholic Central and receive a full scholarship for basketball.
"Today you have indicated that it is your desire to help your mother who is in the Sudan, and the rest of your family and that you hope to do that by getting an education. I understand that, I understand your desire to do that, but the way that you have gone about doing it is, quite frankly, illegal. You have misrepresented yourself and you have been untruthful in order to achieve your goals and that shows considerable disrespect for the laws of Canada, specifically the immigration laws of Canada," Currie said according to the hearing transcripts.
The board held another detention review hearing Tuesday morning and again determined Nicola is a flight risk because of the alleged misrepresentation. He remains in custody as no one has come forward with a bond for his release.
Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board spokesperson Stephen Fields said there is not a lot he can comment on because the case is ongoing.
"It looks as though a hearing will be held in fairly short order so from our perspective that was very encouraging news in the sense that hopefully this whole sad story can be concluded fairly quickly," said Fields. "It was sad to see him in the state that he's in right now. Obviously this was somebody who was a student in one of our schools and we don't like to see anybody go through this kind of ordeal."
The board indicated an admissibility hearing will be held in the near future. Nicola's next detention review hearing will be held May 24, 2016.