Reform UK’s ICE-style deportation plan condemned as ‘sadistic’

Reform UK’s plan to create an ICE-style deportation agency has been condemned as “sadistic”, after the party’s home affairs spokesperson vowed to face down “progressive outrage”.Zia Yusuf, introduced as “the shadow home secretary” at a press conference in Dover, said mass deportations carried out by a planned UK Deportation Command would not trigger the same kind of violent showdowns seen in the US because “policing is done by consent” in the UK. He also described the number of migrants arriving in the country as an “invasion”.His remarks came as Reform set out plans to tackle immigration, including mass deportations, expanded surveillance powers and a ban on the conversion of churches into mosques.The party also wants to scrap indefinite leave to remain, replacing it with a renewable five-year work visa and dedicated spouse visa. There would also be a new rule mandating automatic home searches for anyone referred to the Prevent counter-terrorism programme by three “separate, corroborating authorities”, the party said.Protests at Minneapolis hotel where Gregory Bovino believed to be staying – videoYusuf said the proposed UK Deportation Command would have the capacity to detain 24,000 people at any one time and deport up to 288,000 annually, operating five flights a day.As of April 2024 there were approximately 2,500 detention spaces, and experts have previously warned that expanding capacity on this scale would involve significant cost.On whether the party was prepared for US-style standoffs – including unrest seen in Minneapolis before and after the killings of the 37-year-old residents Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good by federal agents – Yusuf said Reform would not be deterred.“Do we have the resolve to stand up to progressive outrage against perfectly legitimate enforcement of the law in this country? Then the answer is: we will never flinch in the face of that,” he said.However, he argued that similar scenes were unlikely in the UK, adding that officers would not be armed.“I’ve spent a lot of time in America, and there are more firearms in America than humans. There are many problems in this country, but thankfully we don’t have that problem,” Yusuf said.Nigel Farage watches as Zia Yusuf addresses the media. Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian“I don’t envy anyone who has to do that job of law enforcement in America, where that is true. So many people, particularly criminals, are carrying firearms.“This notion that we’re going to have the same issues that come sharply into focus internationally as a result of Trump’s ICE programme? It’s just not true. We would not expect UK deportation command to need to carry weapons.Yusuf reiterated his claim that Britain was being “invaded”.“I know many in the establishment gasp at that word. They may well clutch their pearls in the television studios, but the dictionary definition of invasion is an incursion by a large number of people in an unwanted way.“Make no mistake, as home secretary I will end and indeed reverse this invasion, because the patience of the British people is now exhausted.”The party has said it will impose “visa freezes” on Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria if those countries refused to accept the return of migrants with no legal right to remain in Britain.A brief policy document states that a government led by Nigel Farage would seek to deport more than 600,000 people in its first parliament. This could include a large number of individuals holding indefinite leave to remain, which would be retrospectively revoked if they failed to qualify for the proposed time-limited visas.Another proposal would criminalise “any act that assists or encourages illegal entry”, punishable by up to two years in prison. The party has named the measure the “Polanski law”, after the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, who has argued that the UK should take in more asylum seekers via official routes. Polanski dismissed the proposal as “desperate posturing”.Refugee organisations have reacted with anger. Dora-Olivia Vicol, the chief executive of the Work Rights Centre, said: “We have watched in horror as ICE attacked migrant communities and citizens in the US – yet this is what Reform wants to base their immigration policies on?“This is a sadistic vision of UK families and communities being ripped apart, money being wasted, and the government turning against its own people.”Natasha Tsangarides, an associate director at Freedom from Torture, said: “Yusuf’s speech was a grotesque display of ethnonationalist, authoritarian cruelty. His divisive and dangerous proposals threaten to divide families and wreak terror and chaos in our communities.”