UK immigration enforcement

Since the creation of modern immigration controls in 1905, foreign nationals evading immigration control or committing crimes were regarded as a police matter and those people arrested were put before the courts whereupon they would be prosecuted and go through the deportation process. The United Kingdom Immigration Service's enforcement arm evolved gradually from the early 1970s onwards to meet demand from police for assistance in dealing with foreign national offenders and suspected immigration offenders within the UK. The wider history of UK immigration control is dealt with under UK immigration control - history.

The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 placed new restrictions on British Commonwealth citizens entering the UK and was seen as severe at the time. While it allowed conditions to be imposed on those previously allowed free entry it provided no powers concerning those who evaded the border controls altogether.

""A person shall not be required to submit to examination ... after the expiration of the period of twenty-four hours from the time when he lands in the United Kingdom. …" (Para 2 Sch1, Commonwealth Citizens Act 1962).

This was partially addressed by the 1968 Act after which Commonwealth citizens were required by law to submit to immigration control on arrival. However, for those that evaded the border controls, the law stipulated that there were only 28 days in which to apprehend them. In the event of their being captured the person was awarded an in-country right of appeal that would mean they could not immediately be removed.

The 1971 Act removed the 28-day limit and created a right of appeal that could only be exercised from abroad. It also attempted to define the concept of illegal entry but it was only by testing the law through various judgements and challenges that the principle was established that someone arriving illegally did not have to go through the judicial process and deportation consideration, they could be "administratively" removed on the direction of an immigration officer acting on the authority of the Secretary of State. The evidence of the need for new powers was provided in a parliamentary question from 1972 which gave the bald facts that 13 people had been successfully prosecuted in the previous 12 months for facilitating illegal entry and 10 people had been treated as illegal entrants. Following the passage of the Immigration Act 1971, action to detect immigration offenders in the community was still considered a police matter and largely limited to the detection of seamen deserters, absconders from ports or those who were the subject of deportation orders. The powers in the 1971 Act focussed on the offences of overstaying and assumed that those who did so would be prosecuted and deported. Although it defined what an illegal entrant was, it did not provide sufficient clarity as to how the law should be applied. The concept of illegal entry as laid out in the 1971 Act did not extend to those who simply presented false documents or deceived the immigration officer on arrival about what they were going to do. It was only by establishing legal precedent through judgments’ that a consistent set of powers emerged.

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