Immigration Officer

The role of Immigration officers is to ensure that immigration legislation is enforced. This can cover the rules of entry for visa applicants, foreign nationals or those seeking asylum at the border, detecting and apprehending those that have breached the border and removing them, or pursuing those in breach of immigration and criminal laws.

United Kingdom immigration officers were previously employees of the UK Border Agency, and now work for the Home Office and are appointed by the Home Secretary, whose powers are conferred by the Immigration Act 1971 and who also act in accordance with Immigration Rules. The Immigration Rules are statutory instruments laid down by Parliament under Section 3(2) of the 1971 Act which governs the regulation of entry into the United Kingdom. The Rules are amended by Primary Legislation when required, and provide a framework to ensure that those that come to, or remain in, the UK do so legally, and those that do not can be removed. Immigration officers' powers over citizens of the European Economic Area (EEA) and their family members are governed by the Immigration (EEA) Regulations 2006.

Immigration officers have the power of arrest and detention conferred on them by the Immigration Act 1971, when both at ports and inland. In practice, port immigration officers exercise powers under Schedule 2 of the Immigration Act 1971 and inland immigration Officers under S28A-H of the Immigration Act 1971 and paragraph 17 of Schedule 2. This has led to separate training for port and inland officers, where port officers are not trained in Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE). "Designated Immigration Officers" are port immigration officers who have been trained in detention under PACE. The archetypal power of arrest is for an immigration or nationality offence, which involves a person's entitlement to be in the UK. Though immigration officers also have powers of arrest outside immigration and nationality offences under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, the Crime and Courts Act 2013, and under the Terrorism Act 2000 discussed below.

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