UK: Home Office immigration and their  racist  crackdown

Race Row Over Police Immigration Spot Checks

The Home Office has been accused of targeting non-whites and using "heavy-handed" tactics in a new immigration crackdown to tackle people working illegally in the UK.

Spot checks on people's immigration status are being carried out at London train and tube stations by UK Border Agency staff.

Witnesses claim the checks appear to be only targeting members of ethnic minority communities.

Sky reporter James Banks said: "It is not just those who have been stopped who think these tactics are out of order, with some witnesses arguing the checks were prompted by race, not intelligence."

Phil O'Shea, who witnessed one of the operations earlier this week in north London, told the Kilburn Times: "I thought the behaviour of the immigration officers was heavy-handed and frightening.

"They appeared to be stopping and questioning every non-white person, many of whom were clearly ordinary Kensal Green residents going to work.

"When I queried what was going on I was threatened with arrest for obstruction and was told to 'crack on'."

Another onlooker told Sky News: "I think that when we are targeted like this - whatever you look like - I think it is absolutely terrible, and I think you are basing that on prejudice."

Immigration enforcement officers have also arrested 139 suspected immigration offenders in a series of intelligence-led raids at locations including London, Durham, Manchester, Wales and Somerset - and details of the raids posted online by the Home Office.

Updates on the campaign and heavily pixelated images of some of the arrests of suspects have been tweeted by the Home Office with the hashtag #immigrationoffenders - with the tweets linked to pages on the Government website providing more detailed information on the crackdown.

Those who have no right to be in the UK face being thrown out.

The move is the latest attempt by the Government to crack down on those illegally in the country, following a controversial "go home or face arrest" advertising van campaign.

Immigration Minister Mark Harper said: "We are sending a clear message to employers who choose to use illegal labour - we will find you and you will pay a heavy penalty.

"We will not allow the growth of a shadow economy for illegal migrants."

But concerns have been raised about recent anti-immigration operations in London, and Barry Gardiner, the Labour MP for Brent North, has written to Home Secretary Theresa May demanding an investigation into the spot checks which he said violated "fundamental freedoms".

"We do not yet live in a society where the police or any other officers of the law are entitled to detain people without reasonable justification and demand their papers," Mr Gardiner wrote.

"The actions of your department would however appear to be hastening us in that direction."

Shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant said: "Intelligence-led operations to remove illegal immigrants are to be welcomed. Racial profiling is not."

Writing in The Independent, Dave Garratt, the chief executive of charity Refugee Action, warned that the operations could "incite racial tensions".

"Over the last few weeks we've seen some very visible signs of the Government's 'hostile environment' crusade. There have been vans out on the streets with threatening slogans and, reportedly, non-white people being visibly stopped and searched," he wrote.

"The Home Office is responsible for community cohesion. Yet we are increasingly seeing what appears to be hostility towards non-white immigration, which will do nothing but incite racial tensions and divisions within otherwise rich and diverse communities."

A Home Office spokesman defended the tactics: "We make no apology for enforcing our immigration laws and our officers carry out hundreds of operations like this every year around London.

"Where we find people who are in the UK illegally, we will remove them."

The department said it was looking into whether the stop checks outside London stations - a joint operation between British Transport Police and UKBA - were intelligence-led or random.

And it rejected claims that its tweets with the hashtag #immigrationoffenders may have prejudiced cases, because the suspects have not been identified.

It was unable to state how many of those arrested will face deportation, with some cases taking 72 hours to resolve and others much longer, it said.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/illegal-immigration-raids-140-arrested-225908592.html#zCyfsCB

Home Office immigration crackdown accused of racism

The Home Office is facing complaints of racism and contempt of court, following a heavy-handed online and street-by-street immigration crackdown.

Just months after Theresa May took personal control over the department, it is conducting spot checks on people's immigration status at London Tube stations and posting details of raids online.

Onlookers at the spot checks say UK Border Agency (UKBA) officers were only stopping ethnic minorities and no white people, leading to charges of racial profiling.

The online move has been just as controversial, with the tweets and website reports seemingly conflating the terms 'suspects' and 'offenders'.

"For the @ukhomeoffice to say those arrested are already #immigrationoffenders is to prejudge their cases and possibly contempt," legal analyst David Allen Green tweeted.

Heavily pixelated images of raids in London, Durham, Manchester, Somerset and Wales have been posted by the Home Office, allegedly of people working illegally in the UK.