Debra Spencer, 33, came to Canada from the Caribbean island of St. Vincent when she was eight years old. But she never got her citizenship, and faced deportation as an adult following a criminal conviction.

Following a two-year prison sentence, Debra Spencer finds herself living in a halfway house in Sydney, N.S., because she has nowhere else to go. Except for one place: She may be deported to a country she hasn't visited since she was a child.