Canadian pro-family hero Bill Whatcott is still in U.S. ICE detention. Friends across the country are rallying to help him!

Facing third deportation hearing without a lawyer. But he’s filed asylum papers by himself – from the detention center.

Looming extradition request by Canadian government – over flyers passed out in 2016!

U.S. pro-family law group gave him bad advice, then abandoned him.

November 9, 2026

The federal immigration courthouse in Tacoma is actually a suite in the office area (lower right) of the massive ICE detention facility where Bill is being held.

Many people in the U.S. and elsewhere have asked us to report on the status of pro-family hero Bill Whatcott. The venom the Canadian government is exhibiting as it targets this one man over a “culture war crime” is shocking people around the world.

Pro-family hero Bill Whatcott continues to be imprisoned in the massive ICE detention facility in Tacoma, Washington. He has no lawyer (yet) to represent him. But he has a team of friends (including MassResistance) working hard for him on the outside!

How did this happen?

As we described in detail in our previous post, the Canadian government has undertaken a massive, expensive ten-year “lawfare” effort to imprison Bill. His “hate crime” was passing out Christian-based flyers at the Toronto Gay Pride Parade in 2016!

Bill was officially charged with “wilful promotion of hate.” He was tried and acquitted in 2021. But the government appealed (which is legal in Canada) and in September 2026 got a pro-LGBT judge to convict him. While free before sentencing, Bill drove to the U.S. to seek asylum. At the time he crossed the border his passport was valid. He spent about two weeks with friends in Wisconsin and North Dakota.

He is now imprisoned by ICE in Tacoma and is fighting deportation in immigration court, though he has not (to his knowledge) been charged with a specific crime in the U.S.

On top of the ICE deportation threat, the Canadian government has filed an extradition request with the U.S. State Department! Thus, Bill now faces a big prison sentence in Canada. It’s all for a supposed speech “crime” that would be perfectly legal almost everywhere.

Still no legal representation

Starting in 2018, Bill had been working on possible asylum in the U.S. with an immigration lawyer from the California-based Pacific Justice Institute (PJI). But a month ago, when Bill was in North Dakota, the PJI lawyer gave Bill bad advice that changed everything. He told Bill that it would “not be a problem” if he were to go to the border crossing in Montana to retrieve some belongings a friend had brought from the Canadian side. Against the pleas from his friends not to go, Bill went and was immediately handcuffed, jailed, and sent to ICE detention. Soon afterwards, PJI shamefully dropped his case, telling us that they were too busy with other cases to continue.

While in ICE detention, Bill has no access to email or the Internet, nor can he get incoming phone calls. He can only phone out for 35 cents per minute at certain times of the day. So our group has been doing work on the outside for him!

The Tacoma immigration court requires that lawyers appear in person, not remotely. So we first tried to find pro-bono attorneys in the area for Bill. But they are all overwhelmed with hundreds of cases. One of them came and talked with Bill, but only advised him how to defend himself.

We began calling private immigration law firms. Last week we found one willing to represent Bill. They require $12,000 to get started. (Private firms routinely want $10,000-$15,000 to begin these cases.) We’d raised about $6,000 and tried to work out a deal with them. By Friday we’d raised nearly $9,000, but by then they had changed their mind about representing him.

Our group is continuing to call other private immigration law firms in the Seattle-Tacoma area.

Bill’s third “removal hearing” is this Tuesday, November 10

Bill’s first removal hearing before the Tacoma federal immigration judge was October 14. When Bill showed up without a lawyer and asked for a continuance, the judge gave him 2½ weeks – until November 4 – to find one.

At Bill’s November 4 hearing he still didn’t have a lawyer. The judge was quite hostile, and gave him until November 10 to get his initial asylum filing completed, or risk deportation.

The initial asylum filing is known as the I-589 form. It's very long, is usually done by a lawyer, and has a $100 filing fee. The PJI lawyer had emailed the U.S. border officers on October 30 and said he is representing Bill and was working on it. But he never did any work on it as far as we know.

Bill filed the paperwork himself. Over this past week, he went to the detention library and, with the help of the library staff, filled out the I-589 form himself and filed it! (Someone from our group paid the filing fee.)

In addition, our group has made sure that the judge has received letters from many of Bill’s personal friends attesting to his character.

For the November 10 hearing, Bill will still not have a lawyer. But he will have the crucial I-589 initial asylum form officially filed, and it will halt immediate deportation.

Bill’s next challenge is to get released on bail from the ICE detention – otherwise, he could languish there for years. A successful bail hearing will definitely require a lawyer.

What people can do

Bill Whatcott’s situation has hit a “culture war” nerve around the world. What the Canadian government is doing to him could someday happen to any of us, even in the U.S.

Many people from across the U.S. and Canada – and beyond – have contacted MassResistance and other members of the group asking what they can do to help Bill.

One important thing right now is to donate to Bill’s legal defense HERE.

Also coming up soon will be the U.S. State Department’s processing of Canada’s extradition request for Bill. Given the political landscape now, that could be bad. Bill will probably need a lot of help from friends on many levels for that!

Final thoughts

It seems ironic that perhaps Bill Whatcott’s worst experiences in this ten-year Canadian horror show are happening here in the U.S.

In Bill’s phone calls to us, he’s described his surroundings as full of criminals, gang members, and other unsavory types. He’s probably the only detainee from Canada, and certainly one of the few with a legitimate asylum claim. His strong Christian belief is getting him through everything, he tells us.

Bill Whatcott is considered by many to be the most fearless and principled pro-family activist in Canada. We in the U.S. will not let him down!