Rhianna Benson
A British political party has suggested implementing a deportation system similar to that currently being enacted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers across the pond.
As part of a plan that has since been slammed by critics as 'sadistic', Reform UK leaders this week announced intentions to create an entire ICE-style government agency purpose-built for removing illegal immigrants from the country.
Zia Yusuf, the party's home affairs representative, discussed the group's initiative during a press conference in Dover on Monday (23 February) after slamming migrants arriving on British shores as an 'invasion'.
"I know many in the establishment gasp at that word," he began. "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.
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"Make no mistake, as home secretary, I will end and indeed reverse this invasion, because the patience of the British people is now exhausted."
Addressing the nationwide backlash that ICE agents have faced in America for their increasingly violent raids - which have resulted in the killing of at least eight innocent demonstrators as of 28 January, according to The Guardian - he began by insisting that a mass deportation, if orchestrated by UK Deportation Command, would not spark the same response in Britain.
Giving a reason for this claim, he cited 'policing' being 'done by consent' in the UK.
If handled properly, Yusuf went on to claim, the programme would see as many as 24,000 illegal people detained at any one time.
He also promised his right-wing followers that the UK Deportation Command's resources would allow a Reform government to deport over 288,000 per year, on five flights out of the country per day.
Yusuf's comments came weeks after Reform's leader, Nigel Farage, laid out plans to tackle the 'problem' of illegal immigration.
To do this, Farage has publicly floated the ideas of adding to the government's surveillance powers, banning the building of mosques from abandoned churches, replacing the indefinite leave to remain policy, and swapping it with a renewable five-year work visa.
His team have also suggested implementing automatic searches on the residences of any individual that his proposed counter-terrorism programme, Prevent, views as a potential threat, and imposing 'visa freezes' on citizens of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria if their leaders refuse to accept their deportations back to their home countries.
Discussing these extreme intentions this week, Yusuf addressed the question of whether their implementation into British immigration policy might result in a response similar to that observed in the United States.
As a reminder, demonstrations in America have intensified since the start of the year in response to the brutal murders of 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Pretti and mother-of-three Renee Good, also 37, by border enforcement agents.
Asked if his team are prepared to face equal backlash, Yusuf replied with a question.
"Do we have the resolve to stand up to progressive outrage against perfectly legitimate enforcement of the law in this country?" he continued. "Then the answer is: we will never flinch in the face of that."
He also attempted to use the fact that UK officers would not be armed - unlike ICE agents - to defend the suggested regime.
"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," the politician went on. "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."
Yusuf continued: "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 the UK Deportation Command to need to carry weapons."
Unsurprisingly, Yusuf's latest threats have since received mass backlash, including from migrants' rights organisation leaders, like Dora-Olivia Vicol of the Work Rights Centre.
She told The Guardian in light of the Reform representative's press conference: "This is a sadistic vision of UK families and communities being ripped apart, money being wasted, and the government turning against its own people."
In agreement is Freedom from Torture's associate director, Natasha Tsangarides, who added: "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."
Tyla contacted Reform UK's media team for comment.