Immigration news

The Home Office’s UK immigration hostile environment policy broke equalities law, according to a damning new report released by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). The EHRC’s report concluded that ‘negative consequences of the policy were repeatedly ignored by civil servants and government ministers.’

 

President-elect Joe Biden’s nomination to lead the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) already faces disqualification amid a US green card scandal. Senator Tom Cotton, Republican representative for the state of Arkansas, has accused Alejandro Mayorkas of ‘selling US citizenship to the Chinese.’

 

The Trump administration is set to impose temporary US visa bonds on visitors from more than 20 countries, including Iran, Myanmar and a number of African nations. The hardline US immigration measure could see visitors forced to pay up $15,000 in addition to other visa costs.

 

The rule is scheduled to take effect on Christmas Eve and run for six months. However, it remains to be seen whether President-elect Joe Biden will maintain the rule once he takes office in January 2021.

According to a report published by The Guardian, immigrant rights’ groups have claimed that UK immigration agents are using coercive tactics to gain access to people’s homes. Campaigners allege that uniformed immigration officers are bypassing protocols, such as search warrants, and demanding entry to private premises.

 

Following defeat in a US federal court in September to have undocumented migrants removed from the 2020 US Census count, Donald Trump has taken his case to the Supreme Court. Trump lawyers are preparing to defend his plans to exclude millions of undocumented migrants from the congressional apportionment process. 

 

UK immigration ‘hostile environment’ supporter David Goodhart – a journalist and author who is currently head of the immigration and integration unit at right-wing think tank, Policy Exchange – has been appointed as commissioner of the government’s Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). The move has been blasted by human rights campaigners.

 

Mr Goodhart’s nomination occurred on the same day that parliament’s human rights committee slammed the EHRC for being ‘under-resourced and ineffective’ in protecting the human rights of black people in the UK, according to a report published by The Independent.