A rare smile washes over Ihuoma Amadi’s face as she shares her Christmas traditions.

Gatherings with friends over rice, fried chicken and other favourite dishes. Prayers and glad tidings before the dawn of a new year. Joyous conversations with loved ones at home in Nigeria, where her extended family gathers awaiting her call.

The 21-year-old’s grin then quickly recedes as she prepares to spend this Christmas hiding in the basement of a local church with fellow University of Regina student Victoria Ordu.

“With this situation, it’s not possible to enjoy Christmas,” Or-du said Thursday while Amadi sat beside her wiping her tears.

“The only thing we want for Christmas is to leave this place and get back to class.”

Ordered to leave the country for a year for briefly working off campus illegally, Ordu, 20, and Amadi are instead evading authorities. They have sought shelter inside different Regina churches for six months.

They maintain they were not aware they needed a special permit to work off campus.

Ordu’s admissibility hearing went before the Immigration and Refugee Board on Nov. 21, 2011. According to hearing documents, Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) enforcement officer Chris Case and Ordu presented different versions of an interview that took place July 11, 2011 – shortly after CBSA officers received a tip Ordu had been working illegally.

“When I asked Ordu if she knew she needed a work permit to work in Canada, she said ‘yes’ and that when she applied, she advised the employer that she does not have a work permit to be working there but she has a (social insurance) card so the employer hired her,” Case wrote in a report dated July 21, 2011.

Ordu’s written statement alleges Case and fellow officer Dean Vodden misinterpreted her.

“Dean asked me if I knew I needed a work permit to work in Canada. I said ‘yes’ because it was after I inquired from the international office (at the U of R) that it was illegal. That was when I knew,” wrote Ordu, who quit her job with Advantage Sales and Marketing the day she realized she could not work off campus without a work permit.

“I immediately called and reported my inquiries to my boss. I didn’t know nor have any idea about this before, and my answer to (Vodden’s) question was misunderstood in the report.”

University executives, as well as some provincial and federal politicians, have said the students’ punishments do not fit their crimes.

But according to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, an admissibility hearing decision-maker must issue a removal order if someone has contravened the Act.

The decision-maker does not have the authority to hand out a lesser punishment, such as a fine or a warning.

CBSA officers Vodden and Marina Schultz arrested Amadi on Aug. 3, 2011 while she was working as a cashier in a Regina Walmart. In her report, Schultz wrote Vodden received a tip the day before that Amadi was working without a valid work permit.

In September, Walmart Canada said it has processes in place to ensure employees have proper documentation to work at its stores.

On Thursday, the company’s senior director Susan Schutta would not say whether anything has since been done to tighten screenings for prospective employees, but explained “we hope for a speedy resolution for all involved. Out of respect for the CBSA process, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further.”

CBSA spokesman Sean Best said officials are to enforce removal orders “as soon as practicable once due process is complete.”

When that enforcement will take place is not yet clear as Or-du and Amadi continue to seek sanctuary.

“What we’re going through because of what we did is painful,” Amadi said.

“We wish it never got to this point.”