“Our new Removals Force, modelled on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), will deport 150,000 illegal migrants each year,” reads a 5 October 2025 Facebook post from Kemi Badenoch. The video attached to this post details the Tories’ new ‘Borders plan’, pledging to leave the ECHR (European Convention on Human Rights), scrap the Human Rights Act, and ban asylum claims for ‘illegal’ entrants.
The immigration crackdown has already started
As with all Tory policies, this apes Reform. Farage’s Operation Restoring Justice briefing similarly proposes a ‘Deportation Command’ using what The Independent has referred to as an ICE-style agency, with Home Affairs Spokesperson Zia Yusuf reiterating these plans in February. These promises follow a year-long crackdown across America by ICE: since Trump’s election, the agency has harassed courthouse volunteers, hospitalised and detained children, and been involved in dozens of deaths both in and out of custody. In response, resistance movements across America have fought back.
With two of the UK’s biggest political parties pledging an ICE-style crackdown if elected, it’s time we asked how Britain could resist. I spoke with the Migrants Rights Network’s (MRN) CEO, Fizza Qureshi, and Interim Head of Policy and Communication, Concepta Cassar, to get a sense of how such a crackdown might look, how they have responded to Labour’s immigration raids and what you can do to resist racist policing today.
As many have pointed out, the UK already has its own ICE: the 19 Immigration Compliance and Enforcement teams working under the Home Office’s Immigration Enforcement (IE). Since its establishment between 2012 and 2013, IE has faced multiple controversies including an extensive report from Corporate Watch finding evidence of widespread entry without a legal warrant and abuse of consensual questioning. Under Labour’s dramatic increase in raids – with over 17,400 conducted from July 2024 to December 2025 – IE’s ICE teams have continued to target racialised and migratised workers with impunity, with ‘illegal’ individuals being removed rather than exploitative businesses being the target.
The Migrants’ Rights Network has been documenting this operation. Their website showcases a heat map of where raids are concentrated, breaks down data to reveal the nationalities most affected and outlines your legal rights in response. They’ve been watching the chaos in America carefully: “We are doing some learning around what we could mimic here from the US mobilisation with the right resources.”
Discussing Reform and the Tories’ plans, the MRN told me that they “wouldn’t put anything past them”, but they “think it would look differently than the US, where they look like mercenaries”. Their account of the changes they’ve seen under Labour’s immigration raid increase clarifies the potential difference: “The ICE tactics have evolved – using unmarked vans, bodycams, undercover officers. We think this is done to reduce visibility and resistance.” Zia Yusuf’s statement that Reform’s version of ICE would avoid resistance by not carrying firearms suggests the party is aware of this tactic.
Anti-raids and mutual aid groups are key to community resistance
One key model of resistance shining a light on IE’s operations is the existing Anti-Raids Network. With at least 16 active chapters spanning Edinburgh to Brighton, these decentralised groups focus on raising awareness with potential raid victims about their legal rights, alerting communities, and documenting raids as they happen. The Migrants’ Rights Network points to these groups as a positive example of grassroots resistance. “Essentially what you want is a community response to challenge what we’re seeing on the streets. Neighbours and business owners rallying around and pushing back. We’re seeing pockets of that in parts of London. Community resistance helps people understand what their rights are.”
This is similar to the response we’ve witnessed in Minneapolis against Operation Metro Surge, in which 3000 ICE agents were deployed to the Twin Cities, resulting in the murders of Alex Pretti and Renée Nicole Good. Volunteers coordinated rapid response networks over encrypted messaging apps to track agents and alert communities to imminent raids. Alongside this, mutual aid groups have developed to directly support the city’s migrant communities such as Haven Watch (providing released immigration detainees with transport and blankets) and The People’s Laundry (washing clothes for those unable to leave their homes).
Anti-raid and mutual aid groups like these would be key to a nationwide immigration resistance movement in the UK. The Anti-Raids Network already indicates our capability to support this kind of community organisation, and there are a variety of mutual aid groups across the country that could help communities targeted by a prospective Deportation Command or Removals Force, with 2047 established during the pandemic.
Building solidarity between businesses, local government and more
Alongside direct aid, Minnesota’s resistance groups have built relationships with businesses, trade unions and faith communities to agitate for strike action. The ‘Day of Truth and Freedom’ on 23 January saw between 50,000 and 100,000 attendees protest ICE’s presence, with hundreds of small businesses closing in solidarity, faith communities calling their congregations to attend and the state’s federation of local unions publicly supporting the action. Its success sparked calls for a general strike, culminating in a ‘national shutdown’, with protests taking place across the country on 30 January.
Encouraging businesses to show solidarity will be crucial. In March, the Migrants’ Rights Network partnered with Lush to deliver their Words Matter campaign; the cosmetics chain featured educational booklets in stores and donated 75% of the sales on their Hand of Friendship bath bomb to the organisation. Campaigns like this can not only raise awareness among the public but create alliances between large businesses and rights organisations that could be called upon in the event of a larger immigration crackdown. This is also true of local businesses, the site of most raids. In our conversation, the MRN called on any small businesses who have experienced raids to contact them to discuss their experience: “We want to re-document the adverse impact to people’s wellbeing and record discriminatory practices happening”.
And inevitably, local authorities will need to support these efforts. The Migrant Champions Network, comprising councillors supporting migrants’ rights, notes that local authorities are not obligated to share immigration status data with immigration enforcement or to carry out joint raids with ICE teams. “We would implore the new cohort of elected councillors to resist raids”, the MRN told me, pointing to their recently released guide on doing so. “Demanding local accountability is particularly important”. As an aspirational example, the MRN pointed to Hackney council, awarded Borough of Sanctuary status by the City of Sanctuary in March 2026. In January, they published a Borough of Sanctuary framework outlining a three-year action plan to support migrant communities across the area, something that could be adopted by local authorities nationwide under public pressure.
Resisting raids must start today
In some ways, this article is speculative – the Tories’ and Reform’s proposals are currently too vague to allow for effective resistance planning. But in other ways, this crackdown is already underway. Labour’s raids, while not as spectacular as US ICE, mark a dangerous step down the same path. “It’s incredibly worrying when it becomes normalised in this way,” the Migrants’ Rights Network told me. “It’s threatening anybody and appears to be being used for political theatre… It’s a foolish game being played with people’s lives that results in extreme trauma.”
Whether by starting an anti-raids group, informing local businesses on how the MRN can help, or pressuring your local councillor to join the Migrant Champions Network and implement a Borough of Sanctuary framework, there are several ways you can start defending your community against state terror. A Conservative or Reform-led ICE expansion is a terrifying prospect. But if you want to protect your migrant neighbours, your rights as a British citizen, or the cohesion and autonomy of your community, resistance starts now.
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