A Manitoba judge has handed a U.S. citizen a nearly three-year prison sentence after he admitted to smuggling a man into Canada near the Emerson border crossing.
Sahil Aziz, a 33-year-old from New York, pleaded guilty to human smuggling and offences under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and the Customs Act, after helping a man from Pakistan walk across the Canada-U.S. border into Manitoba last year.
On Wednesday, provincial court Judge Kusham Sharma accepted a joint sentencing recommendation from the Crown and defence, giving Aziz a total sentence of two years and 10 months.
After credit for time already served, Aziz has just over 400 days remaining in custody. He will be eligible for statutory release after serving two-thirds of that time and will face deportation after completing his sentence.
Defence lawyer Jesse Blackman described Aziz’s actions as “largely unsophisticated,” and said he was motivated by compassion, after the man he helped expressed fear of being deported from the United States.
The man “basically came to [Aziz], and probably other people, crying, begging to be taken out of the States,” Blackman said.
“He feared [U.S. President] Donald Trump, he feared ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement]. He feared being deported back to Pakistan, a country that he had little connection to at that point,” the defence lawyer said.
“It may have been good intentions, but obviously, that’s not the standard on these immigration and customs acts.”
Court heard Aziz arrived alone at the Emerson, Man., crossing just after 1 a.m. on Feb. 7, 2025, telling Canada Border Services Agency officers he planned to visit Calgary for a birthday party before picking someone up in Toronto.
During the inspection, Aziz gave inconsistent statements about the vehicle he was driving. A search uncovered identity documents belonging to another man, including a Pakistani passport and Brazilian ID, along with luggage and a cellphone that did not belong to Aziz.
At the same time, officers heard what sounded like footsteps crunching in snow while Aziz was on a phone call.
Further investigation revealed Aziz had been stopped by North Dakota state troopers hours earlier. Body camera footage showed a second person in the vehicle, who appeared to match the identity documents found at the border.
Surveillance video later captured a person believed to be that man near a motel roughly 75 metres from the border in the early hours of Feb. 7.
The man made it into Canada without detection and later applied for legal status in Calgary. That claim was rejected.
Crown prosecutor Matt Sinclair told court text messages recovered from Aziz’s phone showed the smuggling attempt was planned in advance, including discussions with his fiancée about avoiding law enforcement and using someone else’s identification.
“All in all, it was clear that this was a premeditated human smuggling event,” Sinclair said.
Investigators also found Aziz had stored the credit card information of more than 600 people —allegedly obtained through his work at a U.S. dental clinic — on his devices. The data was used to make purchases, including one of the phones in his possession.
Aziz told the court he was sorry for his actions.
“I was just helping somebody into Canada. I didn’t know it was wrong,” he said. “If I had the chance to change it, I would.”
Aziz, who is of Iraqi descent, also said he worried about members of his family, who he said have been displaced by conflict in the Middle East.
In accepting the joint recommendation, the judge said human smuggling is a serious offence that requires strong deterrence.
“There are legal ways to come into Canada, and those have to be applied,” she said.
The judge noted Aziz’s guilty plea as a mitigating factor, but said the sentence needed to send a broader message.
Aziz received two years for human smuggling and a consecutive 10-month sentence for the Customs Act offence.
The court also ordered the forfeiture of items seized during the investigation, excluding the BMW Aziz was driving, which did not belong to him.
