Nigel Farage Repeats Common Themes on Illegal Immigration

Nigel Farage, whom I’m finding I like more and more all the time, may be the British Donald Trump, at least when it comes to illegal immigration. For some time now, he’s been one of the loudest voices for keeping Britain British, for stemming the tide – no, the flood of illegal immigration, of “refugees” who come to Britain, get on the dole and then import their extended families. His Reform Party is gaining votes, and he’s thinking he might have a shot at being Prime Minister – maybe only one shot – and he’s talking about what he’ll try to do with it.

The Reform UK leader believes this is his “do or die” moment — his one shot at No 10. Britain, he says, is “going downhill very, very quickly” and there needs to be a “massive turnaround”. He argues he is the man to do it.

Two years ago such a statement would have been deemed fantasy. Now, with Reform having consistently led in the polls since April, it is no longer an unrealistic prospect. Sir Keir Starmer has even decided to treat him as the real leader of the opposition, all of which has served to give Farage an even bigger platform.

Next week, Farage will make his biggest move yet. On Tuesday he will publish his proposal for the mass deportation of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. To describe the plans as aggressive is an understatement.

It is belaboring the obvious to point out that “aggressive” is precisely what the once-Great Britain needs right now. And Mr. Farage’s plans are certainly ambitious.

They include the arrest of asylum seekers on arrival, automatic detention and forced deportation, with no right of appeal, to countries such as Afghanistan and Eritrea.

There are plans for deals with third countries such as Rwanda, a “fallback” option of sending people to British overseas territories such as Ascension Island and new criminal offences for people who return to the UK or destroy their identity documents.

The NHS, HM Revenue & Customs and the DVLA will be required to share data automatically so illegal immigrants can be tracked down and arrested. Every element of the plan is contentious and it is likely to encounter huge practical, political and legal obstacles. Farage appears to embrace the controversy.

Ascension Island, we might note, is a British possession; it’s an isolated hunk of rock in the South Atlantic, almost a thousand miles from the coast of Africa, and 1,400 miles from the South American coast. Not a pleasant place to which to be banished, but then, the illegal immigrants could have just stayed home. Their homes, granted, may be equally unpleasant; but that’s where they rightfully belong, unless they go through a legal emigration/immigration process.