After 19 years in Canada, a mother and son are being ripped from their family and deported

Nike Okafor never imagined her life would be upended this way — that she would be ripped from her husband and two of her children, all Canadian citizens, and forced to return to the country she fled nearly two decades ago.

Instead, after 19 years in Canada, the mother of three is fighting for her future, along with that of her son, with whom she arrived from Nigeria alone and pregnant all those years ago.

"If I have to go back, it will end my life," Okafor said through tears. "I'll be separated from my husband, I'll be separated from my Canadian children, I don't know how I can live."

"My whole life is here."

Okafor, now 39, came to Canada as an asylum seeker in 2003. A Muslim, she'd had a son with a Christian man and says she feared the boy would be taken from her amid religious tensions in Nigeria's north. She fled to secure a future for them both, she told CBC News. 

WATCH | 'It will end my life,' says mother facing deportation after 19 years in Canada:

Her refugee claim was denied but as Okafor appealed and tried to find a way to stay, life went on. She said she was told to stay in close touch with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) over the years and did so.

In the meantime, she put herself through school, found employment as a personal support worker, had two Canadian-born children, met the man she would marry and built a future she never thought possible back home. 

But that future is about to be cut short.

This past April, Okafor and her son, who are currently in Canada without status, suddenly received a deportation order from the CBSA. The two are set to be deported July 26, despite her husband filing a spousal sponsorship application to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) more than two years ago.

If she's forced to leave, she'll be sent back to a country where she says she has no ties, her Nigerian-born son will have to leave the only country he's ever really known, and her two Canadian-born children will have to say goodbye to their mother.

WATCH | This Canadian may have to say goodbye to his wife as she faces deportation:

According to the federal government's website, the average processing time for spousal sponsorships is 15 months. Okafor has been waiting 28 months already and says she would have long been a permanent resident if not for the delays. 

It's a situation that Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, calls "very, very unjust."