Reform unveils Donald Trump-style ICE plans – all of the worst factors from key annoucement
Reform home affairs chief Zia Yusuf said in a major speech that tens of thousands of people will be rounded up and detained by a Donald Trump-style ICE agency
Reform chief Nigel Farage introduced his new home affairs spokesman on Monday(Image: Getty Images)
Reform UK has this morning unveiled “un-British” plans to kick thousands of legal migrants out of the UK.
Nigel Farage’s pick for Home Secretary, Zia Yusuf, has announced a Donald Trump-inspired ICE agency that would detain more than 20,000 people at a time. And plans to rip up indefinite leave to remain (ILR) have sparked an outcry.
Mr Yusuf also floated visa freezes for six countries in a speech in Dover, Kent, if the right-wing party wins power at the next election. It comes after Reform and right-wing pundits were accused of misleading voters over immigration with a ramping-up of rhetoric on the scale of the issue.
Here The Mirror looks at the key points from Mr Yusuf’s first major speech as Reform’s home affairs spokesman.
New ICE-style agency
Reform has announced it will set up an ICE-style agency, the UK Deportation Command, responsible for rounding people up and deporting them.
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The organisation, modelled on the controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in the US, would have capacity to detain 24,000 at a time, Reform claims. And RAF planes would be used to deport up to 6,000 a week, Mr Yusuf believes.
It would require a massive ramping up of capacity, with around 2,400 detention spaces available in April 2024.
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Tens of thousands of legal immigrants could be kicked out
Tens of thousands of people with a legal right to live and work in the UK face being kicked out, Mr Yusuf said.
He said that indefinite leave to remain (ILR) would be scrapped, to be replaced by a renewable five-year work visa. These would include higher salary thresholds.
Labour has also proposed a shake-up to ILR rules, forcing people to wait longer before becoming eligible. The measures, which have sparked a backlash among MPs, would see the standard wait increased to between 10 and 15 years.
RAF plane will be on standby
Mr Yusuf pledged five deportation flights will leave every day under a Reform government.
And to prevent departures being delayed by mechanical issues, an RAF Voyager plane will be on standby as a “hot spare”.
Two-tier benefit system
Benefits will only be available to British citizens, Reform has announced.
The party has floated this policy before – meaning that workers from overseas who lose their job will not be entitled to the support their former colleagues would.
“A Reform government will terminate welfare payments to foreign nationals,” Mr Yusuf said.
Visa bans on Muslim-majority countries
A Reform government would impose visa freezes on Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria if the countries refuse to take back their citizens, Mr Yusuf said.
This suspension would also apply to Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia, he said.
Expansion of stop and search
Mr Yusuf announced that a Reform government would oversee the ramping up of stop and search powers for police.
The home affairs spokesman told the audience: “We will get the knives off our streets by giving the police vastly expanded powers of stop and search.”
What do Reform’s opponents say?
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Max Wilkinson said Reform’s “Trump-inspired plans” will “only bring chaos and disorder to Britain’s streets, not the order and control our immigration system needs”.
He went on: “Far from rescuing the economy or making us safer, Reform’s plans are a serious threat to Britain’s economy and to our NHS, police and other key public services.”
And Labour chairwoman Anna Turley said: “Their plan to deport people who have followed the rules, worked hard and built their lives here – our friends, neighbours and colleagues – is a direct attack on settled families and fundamentally un-British.”
