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Local immigration teams launched

19 June 2008

The new teams will work with police and border control agents to help ensure illegal working operations are stopped.

Around 7500 UK Border Agency officers and staff will be reorganised into local immigration teams, and given a clear mission to focus on local immigration crime. 

The plans announced this week in the document, Enforcing the Deal (new window), set the focus for the Border Agency's work to remove criminals first.

Tough new measures

This will be achieved through measures including:

  • automatically deporting serious offenders
  • hiring 1000 extra immigration enforcement staff
  • taking swift action against employers who break the law
  • forming new partnerships between local authorities and enforcement agencies

New residents must earn the right to stay

Launching the new strategy, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said foreign nationals living in the UK must 'play by the rules', and earn their right to stay.

'We have already increased resources by putting 1000 additional immigration staff on enforcement duties, and we are on-track to double our enforcement resources, and build immigration crime partnerships in every part of the UK,' she said.

The new local immigration teams are central to that work. Each team will have powers to enforce all immigration laws. They will gather intelligence and work to disrupt illegal activity.

They will also track and detain illegal immigrants, and investigate illegal working operations.

The new teams will work closely with police, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, and local agencies.

Using local knowledge to solve local problems

The Home Secretary said the teams 'have the local knowledge to tackle a community’s specific needs – tracking down illegal migrants, targeting those companies that flout the rules, or gathering intelligence by working with a range of local agencies.'

Reforms set out in ‘Enforcing the Deal’ include: 

  • naming and shaming employers who hire illegal immigrants on the UK Border Agency (new window) website
  • working with HMRC to target the most serious business offenders
  • carefully policing licences for businesses allowed to hire immigrants
  • automatic deportation for those sentenced to 12 months or more in prison or for those who use guns or sell drugs
  • creating shared 'watch-lists' of immigration offenders

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