Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on patrol with officers from West Yorkshire Police during a visit to Halifax Police Station, December 20, 202
LABOUR boasts of an immigration crackdown and plans for sweeping new seize and search powers set a “dangerous precedent” and embolden the far right, campaigners warn.
Ahead of a crunch parliamentary vote on their Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill today, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government has gone on the offensive, trumpeting thousands of arrests of exploited “illegal” migrants made since assuming office in July.
Between polling day and January 31 2025, 5,424 visits were made by immigration officers to workplaces across the country, leading to 3,930 arrests — numbers they proudly proclaim to be 38 per cent higher than a year earlier.
Hailing a record 609 arrests in January alone — almost twice the tally of 352 a year earlier under ther Tories — Labour Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the government was boosting enforcement to “record levels.”
She said: “The immigration rules must be respected and enforced.
MILLSTONE: Parts of the Labour Party see Nigel Farage’s Reform as worthy of emulation
You only have to look at the dire polling of Labour’s sister parties in Europe to see that aping the hard right on migration leads to spectacularly bad results, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP
LABOUR is facing calls, both internally and from its enemies, that it should become even more anti-migrant in its policies and rhetoric in order to stave off the growing threat of Reform UK. This is a morally and politically bankrupt approach that will lead Labour to disaster.
If anyone doubts that, just take a look at some of the traditional left parties in Europe who have trodden that path, they have largely been reduced to a rabble.
The BBC reports that a group of “around 40 MPs” calling themselves the Red Wall group are calling in the government for a stronger message on immigration to stave off the electoral threat posed by Reform UK.
At the same time, there has been the proposed revival of the odious Blue Labour group with effectively the same aim. It has received a shot in the arm with the invitation of its ideological leader Maurice Glasman to Donald Trump’s inauguration. This is a direct foreign intervention in British politics and specifically into Labour politics as the Maga reactionaries try to reshape Western politics in their own image.
Labour has also decided to boost Reform UK’s advertising, by issuing ads which mimic their content and style on deportations.
Protester gathered outside the Colorado state capital on 5 February. Photograph: Tyler Tomasello/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock
Protesters in Colorado express solidarity with the undocumented after dramatic raids throughout Denver
Thousands took to the streets on Wednesday and Saturday last week following a series of dramatic raids by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) throughout Denver as protesters expressed solidarity with the undocumented and rage at Donald Trump’s war on immigrants.
“We’re here to fight for our neighbors, to stand together and say no to the threats from the Trump administration,” Amanda Starks, a local artist at a rally on Saturday who’s been handing out literature to immigrants on their legal rights.
She added: “I think this is worse than in 2016, when we thought the GOP would stand up to Trump. Now they’re all Christian nationalist yes-men, and we’re up against something greater this time around. But it’s bringing this community together.”
The US president has taken a special interest in the historically immigrant-friendly state of Colorado, calling his deportation plan for alleged gang members Operation Aurora, named for the Denver suburb claimed by him and echoed by conservative media to have been “taken over” by the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua (TdA).
One of the executive orders signed on Trump’s first day in office was to cut funding and send a stop-work order to the Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network (Rmian), a Colorado non-profit offering free legal services to the undocumented. Due to the large volume of those in need, Colorado has one of the lowest rates of legal representation for undocumented immigrants.
Then last week heavily armed Swat teams began storming apartment complexes around Denver and Aurora in the early hours of the morning – sometimes with a Fox News crew embedded with the teams – though with 30 arrests in all, only one gang member has been confirmed to be in custody.
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Later this year, new laws will be introduced giving anonymity to firearms officers who shoot someone, unless they are convicted. Photograph: Grant Rooney Premium/Alamy
Review into accountability soon to report as police seek greater protection from prosecution over use of force
Police want changes to the law giving them “a licence to kill”, leading rights groups have warned as the government prepares to give officers new protections from prosecution.
A government-ordered review into police accountability is expected to report within weeks. It followed fears of a walkout by angry armed officers in London after a police marksman, Martyn Blake, was tried for murder over the shooting of Chris Kaba. Blake was acquitted in October by a jury in three hours.
Police say they want the system to be fairer and protect officers who use force as part of their duties. Rights groups believe the system holding police to account is already too weak, and diluting it would “undermine public trust”.
In a letter seen by the Guardian, groups including Inquest, the Centre for Women’s Justice, Liberty and Black Lives Matter warn the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, against weakening police accountability.
“This review is less a kneejerk reaction but rather a dangerous and calculated attempt to use a high-profile case to push for less scrutiny and accountability of police actions,” they said.
“The number of cases where police officers are prosecuted for a death is vanishingly small (since 1990 there has only been one successful prosecution of an officer for manslaughter and none for murder).
Tributes are placed beneath the covered seal of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) at its headquarters in Washington, D.C., on February 7, 2025. (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
“Frankly, there is zero harm to the government,” in a pause, said the Trump-appointed federal judge, who pressed administration lawyers to prove their claims of USAID fraud and corruption.
A federal judge said Friday that he would issue a “very limited” pause on the Trump administration’s midnight deadline for the U.S. Agency for International Development to place thousands of agency staff on leave.
Judge Carl Nichols of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia—an appointee of President Donald Trump—said he would approve a limited temporary restraining order preventing 2,200 USAID employees from being put on administrative leave at midnight. Nichols also said he would decide whether the 500 workers who have already been placed on leave will be reinstated.
“They should not put those 2,200 people on administrative leave tonight,” Nichols said, according to The Hill.
BREAKING: Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump administration from placing 2,000+ USAID workers on leave as litigation continues.
Nichols’ move came in response to claims by two unions—the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) and American Federation of Government Employees—that their members would suffer “irreparable harm” as a result of Trump’s order. The unions said that the effort led by the Trump administration and unelected Department of Government Efficiency(DOGE) head Elon Musk constitutes an “ongoing, illegal scheme to gut” USAID.
“This is not something the president can unilaterally do,” Karla Gilbride, an attorney representing the unions, told Nichols during a Friday hearing.
Nichols said that “frankly, there is zero harm to the government” from a temporary pause. The judge pressed Trump administration attorneys to show proof of their claims of widespread fraud and corruption within USAID, which provides foreign aid and development assistance but also has a dubious history of funding subversion, drug trafficking, forced sterilization, Central American death squads, and torture during its 64-year existence.
Musk—whose DOGE has locked USAID employees out of internal systems and recalled thousands of personnel to the U.S. in recent days—has promoted conspiracy theories about the agency. Earlier this week, he posted on his X social media platform that it’s “time for it to die.”
Trump posted Friday on his Truth Social online platform: “USAID IS DRIVING THE RADICAL LEFT CRAZY, AND THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO ABOUT IT BECAUSE THE WAY IN WHICH THE MONEY HAS BEEN SPENT, SO MUCH OF IT FRAUDULENTLY, IS TOTALLY UNEXPLAINABLE. THE CORRUPTION IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE. CLOSE IT DOWN!”
Responding to Nichols’ reprieve, AFSA president Tom Yazdgerdi said in a statement that “this ruling is a crucial first step in halting a reckless assault on USAID and in supporting the dedicated professionals who serve our country.”
“We will continue to fight to protect the professionals who advance America’s values and leadership abroad,” Yazdgerdi added.
Lauren Bateman, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group, said that “tonight’s ruling proves temporary relief for the over 2,000 workers set to be put on leave by the Trump administration. It is a step forward in our fight against the unconstitutional and illegal attempt to break the back of USAID.”
“Trump and Musk’s attempt to disrupt aid around the world is unfathomably cruel, and the ruling tonight pumps the brakes on the destruction of a vital tool of humanitarian relief and American diplomacy,” Bateman added. “The Trump administration must abide by the ruling, or it risks catapulting the entire U.S. government into chaos.”
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and reality then.
