Could EU migration policy lead to ICE-style raids? – EUobserver

The EU is readying new rules to speed up deportations of irregular migrants — but dozens of NGOs warn the measures could mirror hard-line tactics used by US immigration authorities. Is Europe about to take a tougher turn on migration?

The European Union will soon have a new regulation that should make it easier for EU countries to deport irregular migrants.

A group of 64 NGOs is worried that EU countries could use deportation methods that resemble what the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, ICE, does in the US.

Is the EU going in that direction?

In the EU, only one out of five irregular migrants ordered to leave actually leaves the territory. Because return orders are hard to enforce. A return decision is taken when a migrant does not or no longer has a legal residence permit in the EU country.

But the majority of them stay here, one way or another.

That’s why the European Commission proposed reforming the return policy last year. It suggested, for example, the creation of return centres outside the EU to facilitate deportations.

The European Commission also proposed longer detention periods for these people in many cases where deportation takes longer than expected.

But a group of 64 NGOs fears that the future EU text would allow authorities to act similarly to ICE in the US, which has been accused of violence, including killing two people recently.

Is that so?

What triggered the NGOs’ attention was the position taken by the 27 EU Member States in December on this specific regulation.

They basically agreed to toughen the already strict proposals. For instance, they want to extend detention possibilities and to be able to investigate individuals more easily.

What it means in concrete terms is that when a third-country national is subject to a return decision but is not cooperating in returning to their country of origin, national authorities should be able to search their place of residence without a judicial warrant.

And of course, they may carry out their work without the consent of the individual.

Member states also want authorities to be able to search “other relevant premises,” which is broad enough to include things like local associations’ offices.

And to further facilitate these returns, authorities could use “other investigative measures that their national law allows,” according to the text. Something which again opens the door to many types of coercive actions.

Now, the final regulation could look like this, or it could look different, because it will be the result of negotiations between the Member States on one side and the European Parliament on the other. And the latter has not yet taken a position.

Looking at recent votes on migration policies, it seems likely that the Member States’ proposal for stricter rules could gather support in the Parliament.

Even the coalition formed by the right-wing EPP, the Socialists and the Liberals could back such measures.

Migration has become the mother of all political battles in almost every EU member state, and very few groups clearly position themselves in favour of a more open migration policy.

Spain, which recently showed that it wanted to go in the opposite direction by regularising half a million migrants, is becoming more and more isolated in the EU.

If you want to know more about this Spanish case and the broader EU migration debate, you can listen to episode 6 of Briefed, published on 29 January.