Immigration raids are a fear mechanism. They are a form of racist State intimidation and divide racialised communities. 

Our Immigration Raids: An Anatomy of Racist Intimidation report dissects the secretive and opaque nature of Immigration Enforcement’s intelligence gathering, guidance on multi-agency operations and police cooperation. Raids also have a disproportionate impact on racialised communities and act as a method to divide or intimidate migrants and People of Colour while making millions in civil penalties in the process.

Read the report

For a more accessible and printer friendly version of the report, click here.

An increase in raids, arrests and deportations

Following former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s pledge to increase raids targeting people without permission to work in early 2023 the number of immigration raids increased by 68% from September 2022 to September 2023. Unfortunately, ramping up raids has continued under Starmer’s Government.

In August 2024, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced Immigration Enforcement would intensify their operations with a specific focus on car washes and the beauty sector. By the end of last year, the Government stated it had deployed an extra 1000 people into Immigration Enforcement alongside an increase in biometric fingerprinting kits. We have also been made aware that body cameras are being implemented alongside ‘plain-clothes’ officers and unmarked vans.

The largest increase in deportation rates following an immigration raid rose to 14.83% in March 2023 and 19.95% in April 2023. The sizable increases in both arrest rates and deportation rates followed the Nationality and Border Act 2022 coming into effect in July 2022 and the ‘Illegal’ Migration Act 2023, which was introduced in March 2023 and enacted in July that same year. This timing reinforces the function of immigration raids as a fear mechanism and as ‘political theatre’.

A lucrative income stream

Immigration raids are also a lucrative income stream for the Home Office.

In 2023 alone, it issued 1,610 civil penalties amounting to £28.4 million relating to employing people without permission to work, and £8.1 million in the first quarter of 2024. These figures are lower for landlords renting to those without permission to rent totalled £151,480 for 155 civil penalties. 

However, in just the first quarter of 2024 the value already totalled £165,680 for 62 penalties. In August 2023, the Home Office announced that civil penalties for employers found to be employing workers without permission to work are to triple. The announcement signified the biggest rise in civil penalties since 2014, rising from £15,000 to £45,000 per worker and up to £60,000 for repeat breaches. This came into effect in February 2024.

Mapping the raids by nationality and location

Nationality

Between January 2022 and September 2023, South Asian nationals made up 29% of those targeted by immigration raids with Indian nationals forming the largest group affected by raids at 14%.

Central and Eastern Europeans were the next largest group targeted at 21%, with Albanian (8%) and Romanian (7%) nationals the next most targeted groups behind Indian nationals. Below that, Middle Eastern nationals were the third largest regional grouping at 12%, with the largest nationalities within that being Iranian and Iraqi (both 4%). Kurds from Iran and Iraq have also been a big focus, alongside Albanians, of small boat Channel crossings from the EU.

British nationals are the second largest group at 10% which casts doubt upon the efficacy of the intelligence used versus the influence of racial profiling.

Location

As part of our groundbreaking research, we created a heatmap using GIS software, which visually sets out the geographical distribution of immigration enforcement across the UK.

Immigration raids often take place either in city centres on businesses, in areas with significant racialised populations, or in significant areas for migration routes. This does not mean that immigration raid figures necessarily directly correlate to the number of undocumented migrants in that area, due to the spurious nature of ‘intelligence’ and the areas of focus for enforcement operations. 

• The highest number of immigration raids in 2022 and 2023 occurred in Belfast, around the harbour (1,277), followed by Stranraer (1,102) and, further behind, Birkenhead (485), around the docks. These are all areas covered by Operation Gull, the joint border policing exercise between police and immigration services in the UK and Ireland 
• In London and Birmingham, in particular, the incidence of raids in areas with higher racialised populations is clear. In both these locations, targeted areas have higher  Black (both African and African-Caribbean), South Asian and (for Kensington only) West Asian populations than the UK average
• There was a significant decrease in raids in specific areas, mainly Glasgow, particularly the Govanhill area, where there is a large migrant and racialised population, and East London. There is a likelihood that active anti-raids networks and unaffiliated successful community mobilisations in areas like Glasgow and East London, have had an impact on the reduction of raids in these areas

Anatomy of raids

Operations follow a similar pattern from intelligence gathering and picking targets to carrying out the enforcement activity and its aftermath. Raids on workplaces span a range of targets from small business to factories or multiple premises which can involve numerous ICE teams and other agencies. 

However, there are differences in the nature of operations and lack of clarity around the intelligence that is used to inform the raids. As Corporate Watch has documented, these operations are secretive and rely largely on low-grade intelligence such as ‘tip-offs’, including fabricated reports from rival businesses or gossip.

Intelligence gathering and data-sharing: According to a National Audit Office report into Immigration Enforcement, the Home Office receives over 60,000 pieces of intelligence each year, mostly from members of the public. Immigration Intelligence teams assess these against ‘national priorities’ and the ‘potential risk of harm’, which are then passed onto Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE).

Pre-visit research, checks and surveillance: Enforcement Planning Assessments Guidance sets out steps Immigration Enforcement officers details the preparatory gathering of intelligence that must take place before an operational visit or operation. These findings are recorded in PRONTO- a digital policing product supplied by Motorola Solutions UK Limited. However, it is unclear how officials conducting pre-visit checks determine the immigration status from surveillance at the premises, and it cannot be ruled out that racial profiling constitutes a substantial part of these checks. 

A significant or red risk operations categorisations make reference to “significant attempts may be made to obstruct the operation” implies that the presence of anti-raids and community resistance factors into ICE risk assessments. 

Successive policy announcements by the Government to increase raids as part of Hostile Environment policies raises questions around how this impacts the number of ‘intelligence’ acted upon in addition to the amount of pre-visit checks that are conducted and it is important to interrogate how this translates to intelligence analysis, and if pre-visit checks and surveillance are being conducted ‘thoroughly’. 

Raids are a fear mechanism

The function of raids is not only to exclude, but it is also to disrupt the lives of migrants, their families, businesses and communities, and to impose a form of terror. As previous research has demonstrated, these enforcement practices produce heightened fear, insecurity, and social isolation and exclusion.

Immigration raids are also a form of State-enabled kidnapping. This highlights how States capture and exert control over migrants

Anti-Raids Network guidance: Community-based anti-raids networks across towns and cities in the UK have suggested the following for those resisting raids

• Protect the person being removed and make sure you know your rights
• Make sure people know that they do not have to answer questions and can leave
• If they do want to leave, walk away with them 
• Film immigration officers and police. If someone is being detained, check with them first, or only film the officers.
• Interact with the officers. Ask why these specific people are being questioned.
• Spread the word: Tell people around you what’s happening, call your friends, contact your local anti-raids group

It is vital we stand up and send a clear message to the State: our communities do not consent to raids. We demand not only an end to raids, but also to the Hostile Environment that inflicts fear on communities including surveillance, and right to work and rent checks. 

There are anti-raids groups in Hackney, Waltham Forest, Newham, Tower Hamlets and west London, as well as Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool and Newcastle. However there is a lot you and your local community can do. 

You can find out more information on raids and how to support detainees by checking out: 

• Anti-Raids Networks
• SOAS Detainee Support

Updates

• The Hostile Environment just got worse
• Right to Work + Immigration Raids