After being sent back to the U.S. for the sixth time in two years, American citizen Junseo Hagh returned to Canada to “finish what he started.”
That’s according to a search warrant obtained by CBC News from a Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) investigator, which alleges Hagh also likely smuggled a gun into British Columbia earlier this year.
The warrant alleges that Hagh was deported from Canada six times but returned undetected each time along the B.C.-Washington state border.
The allegations detailed in it have not been proven.
“The question obviously that is raised is, how did he get back into Canada?” asks Toronto-based immigration lawyer Evan Green, who is also able to practise in the U.S.
“That’s the big issue because clearly this is not someone who we want to be in Canada given his background.”
Hagh, 21, who also goes by Ethan, has not been charged with any firearm offences but is currently in custody facing charges of returning to Canada without authorization after a removal order and failing to appear to determine the right to enter Canada.
His lawyer, Roy Kim, told CBC News Hagh has yet to enter a plea and declined to comment further.
Hagh served jail time twice, in August and December 2024, for the same offences.
Hagh’s numerous deportation orders have puzzled immigration experts amid U.S.-Canada tensions and heightened scrutiny of the world’s longest undefended border. Documents reveal Hagh is adamant on returning to Canada because of the fond memories he had in the northern nation.
“This is a highly unusual case,” Green said.
Hagh is non-verbal, has mental health issues and has been homeless since he was 15, living on the streets of Los Angeles, New York and B.C., according to the warrant.
He first came to Canada as a child under a study permit.
In December 2022, after his permit had expired, he pulled out an axe during a fight at a SkyTrain station in Burnaby, B.C., according to the search warrant.
The fight was deemed consensual, and so Hagh wasn’t charged, but he was arrested on an immigration warrant.
Immigration officials issued Hagh an exclusion order days later, banning him from returning to Canada for one year.
But he violated the order and came back to Canada shortly afterwards. He was issued a deportation order in February 2023, permanently barring him from the country.
What followed was months of a cat and mouse game between Hagh and border officials, according to the search warrant. Hagh would enter Canada without authorization, be sent back to the U.S. and then would head back north.
In total, the search warrant says Hagh has been kicked out of Canada six times. He would, at times, return to Canada within days after being deported.
He was deported on July 2, 2024, then deported again 16 days later, according to the warrant.
Immigration lawyer says repeat deportee case not part of wider trend
There was no record of him entering Canada then because he didn’t go through a port of entry, according to his December 2024 sentencing. The Vancouver provincial court provided CBC News with audio recordings of the hearing.
“He knows he’s not supposed to be in Canada without authorization, yet he continues to return. Hopefully, a longer form of incarceration will deter him,” said the Crown prosecutor.
Christine Jurusik, a U.S. immigration lawyer licensed to practise in Ontario and New York state, said she’s not surprised that Hagh was able to enter undetected.
“Our border with the United States is largely undefended and unmonitored. So there are lots of places that people can cross without being intercepted by CBSA,” she said.
“Someone like this who has the intention to be in Canada and really wants to be here, can find ways.”
Ride along with the RCMP to see how they’re patrolling the Canada-U.S. border in new ways
In December 2024, Judge James Sutherland said Hagh had a “sympathetic background,” but still gave him the 120-day sentence recommended by the Crown.
“The number of violations of the immigration orders, the quick succession in which they were violated required this court to render a sentence … that law breakers can be assured that the court will hand out sentences that provide serious consequences for violations of this nature,” Sutherland said.
Hagh was last deported on Jan. 8, 2025, but was seen crossing illegally into Canada the next day, after buying firearms ammunition from Bellingham, Wash., according to the search warrant.
Cpl. Arash Seyed with the RCMP’s federal policing Pacific region unit told CBC News that U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested Hagh on Jan. 9 on the American side, after Mounties were told he was attempting to enter Canada.
Seyed said he doesn’t know whether Hagh “legally or illegally” got into Canada after that.
An RCMP officer spotted him at a shopping centre in Burnaby on Jan. 16, arrested him for an outstanding immigration warrant and took him to the Immigration Holding Centre in Surrey, the warrant said.
A knife, five firearm cartridges and a receipt from a Bellingham pawn shop that showed he bought about $90 worth of ammunition on Jan. 9 were found among Hagh’s things, according to the warrant. Authorities didn’t find a gun, CBSA said.
Hagh said he didn’t bring a gun into Canada.
“There’s no gun in here. I can tell you that,” he wrote on a piece of paper to investigators, according to the warrant.
“No comment, other than that I can tell you truthfully that there is no gun.”
When Hagh was deported on Jan. 8, he told a CBSA officer that he wanted to return to Canada for two months “to finish what he started,” according to the warrant.
“He did not specify what this was, but stated that he felt that he had to do a ‘reset’ of himself and found that Canada was a better part of his life that he wanted to revisit and then return to the U.S.,” the CBSA officer said in the warrant.
The officer alleges Hagh said he would buy a gun when he returned to the U.S. for protection but that he would leave it prior to returning to Canada.
“I believe that firearm cartridges only have one purpose: to be used with a firearm,” the officer wrote in the warrant. “I believe that Mr. Hagh smuggled a firearm with him when he entered Canada, despite his claims to the contrary.”
Hagh’s lawyer told the court during Hagh’s sentencing in 2024 that he excelled academically while attending secondary school in B.C. before things took a turn for the worse.
He wanted to return to B.C. “to come to reconciliation,” his lawyer said.
The CBSA was authorized to search Hagh’s phone for evidence of purchasing a firearm, but he has not been charged with any firearm offences.
Jurusik said Hagh’s case raises concerns but is an anomaly.
“We haven’t had a huge risk of Americans fleeing or trying to come to Canada illegally. So while this is alarming, I don’t think it’s a trend, and it doesn’t cause concern the way the security on the southern border causes concerns to American citizens where they do have much higher numbers and incidents of things like this happening,” Jurusik said.
“I think CBSA is doing a good job and that this is probably just a unique situation.”
CBSA declined an interview request and said it couldn’t provide details on individual cases.
“All persons entering Canada must report to CBSA for examination,” the agency said in a statement. “Not reporting for examination is both illegal and not safe.”
CBSA and other law enforcement agencies have been provided increased support in response to Donald Trump’s tariff threats and his demand that Canada do more at the border to stop the flow of drugs and illegal migration.
In December 2024, the federal government announced a $1.3 billion plan to strengthen border security.
Figures for 2025 have yet to be released, but in 2024, the CBSA removed more than 16,000 inadmissible foreign nationals from the country, according to agency data. About 600 were American citizens.
While it’s unclear how Hagh got into the country so many times, court records show the timing worked in his favour.
After being issued a deportation order in August 2024, the plan was for the CBSA to drop him off at the border and for a family friend to pick him up on the Blaine side, a Crown prosecutor told the judge during Hagh’s December 2024 sentencing.
But Hagh was released days earlier than scheduled, and so no one was there to pick him up, according to the hearing.
Hagh contacted his family in California after his release and told them he didn’t want to return to the state, the Crown said.
Then, in September 2024, the Crown says an off-duty CBSA officer saw Hagh charging his phone at a Save On Foods grocery store in Burnaby.
The officer recorded a video of Hagh on this phone and contacted on-duty officers.
“But by the time they arrived at Save On, Mr. Hagh was no longer there,” the Crown said.
Hagh is in custody at the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam, B.C., and is due in court in July.
