Reform UK has unveiled plans to create a UK Deportation Command modelled on the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, prompting condemnation from rights groups who described the proposals as 'sadistic' and 'grotesque'.
Zia Yusuf, the party's home affairs spokesperson, said the new agency would have capacity to detain 24,000 people at once and deport up to 288,000 annually via five flights a day. He described migration as an 'invasion', arguing that the British people's patience 'is now exhausted'. Yusuf claimed US-style standoffs were unlikely in the UK because 'policing is done by consent' and officers would not be armed.
Under the proposals, indefinite leave to remain would be replaced with a renewable five-year work visa and a dedicated spouse visa. The party also plans to ban the conversion of churches into mosques and mandate automatic home searches for anyone referred to the Prevent counter-terrorism programme by three separate corroborating authorities. A new 'Polanski law' would criminalise assisting or encouraging illegal entry, punishable by up to two years in prison.
Yusuf said the party would 'never flinch' in the face of 'progressive outrage' over enforcement. He argued that the UK does not have the same firearm issues as the US, so standoffs would not occur. Critics, however, pointed out that current detention capacity stands at around 2,500 spaces, and expanding to 24,000 would be costly.
Dora-Olivia Vicol, chief executive of the Work Rights Centre, said: 'This is a sadistic vision of UK families and communities being ripped apart.' Natasha Tsangarides of Freedom from Torture described Yusuf's speech as 'a grotesque display of ethno-nationalist rhetoric'. The party also said it would impose visa freezes on Pakistan, Afghanistan and Syria if they refused to accept returns of migrants with no legal right to remain.
