Latest news with #BritCards'
Metro
2 days ago
- Politics
- Metro
45 arrested after police pepper spray protesters outside immigration raid
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Massive immigration raids promised by Donald Trump are underway in major cities across the US – and one in Los Angeles descended into chaos. Raids took place across the City of Angels, but counterprotests led to multiple arrests, allegedly without warrants. Two Home Depot stores, a clothing shop called Ambient Apparel and other locations were raided by ICE agents. The video showed police throwing smoke bombs and one officer tackling a protester. Hundreds gathered as tensions increased. The violent scenes sparked outrage online, and the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights said 45 people were arrested without warrants. Executive director Angelica Salas said: 'Our community is under attack and is being terrorised. These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers, and this has to stop. 'Immigration enforcement that is terrorising our families throughout this country and picking up our people that we love must stop now.' 'I am closely monitoring the Ice raids that are currently happening across Los Angeles, including at a Korean-American-owned store in my district,' Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove said. 'LA has long been a safe haven for immigrants. Trump claims he's targeting criminals, but he's really just tearing families apart and destabilising entire communities.' Mayor Karen Bass said Los Angeles would 'not stand' for the violent scenes witnessed across the city. Trump began his immigration crackdown shortly after re-entering office. More Trending In January, more than 500 arrests were made in one day before the first flights out of the United States began. The President issued an executive order, posted to the White House website, outlining Trump's plan to prevent undocumented immigrants from 'invading' communities and costing state and local governments. And a policy which previously restricted officers' abilities to arrest undocumented immigrants at 'sensitive' locations, such as schools, churches and hospitals, was rolled back. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Inside the immigration raids on UK nail bars, construction sites and restaurants MORE: Why I'm scared by a report about Britain's 'minority white' future MORE: Universal digital 'BritCards' on an app could soon be used to prove who you are
Daily Mirror
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mirror
Mandatory ID cards on your phone being weighed up - what it would mean for you
Proposals for new 'BritCards' - which would prove whether someone has the right to live and work in the UK - are being looked at by ministers amid claims it will help tackle illegal migration Ministers are looking at plans to bring in mandatory digital ID cards for every adult in the UK. Backers say the new "BritCard" - which would be linked to Government records - would help tackle illegal migration and rogue landlords. A new report says the ID, which would be stored on smartphones, would make right-to-rent and right-to-work checks quicker and easier. Former PM Tony Blair has long called for ID cards, but the Government previously said it was not planning to bring them in. However a new report by think-tank Labour Together has been passed to No10's policy unit. Backbench MPs Jake Richards and Adam Jogee say the ID cards would be a "full, country-wide effort" allowing people to prove their right to be here. The think-tank said in a report that a "mandatory, universal, national identity credential" can help the UK secure its borders. BritCards would be issued free of charge to everyone with the right to live and work in the UK, Labour Together says. It estimates it would cost between £140million and £400million to set up. Mr Richards and Mr Jogee wrote that digital ID "will help improve the enforcement of our rules dramatically". They continued: "But it is also progressive because it gives our residents and citizens thecast iron guarantees they have not previously had. This is your have a right to be here. This will make your life easier." Supporters argue the move would help prevent a repeat of the Windrush scandal, which saw hundreds of people wrongly deported or threatened with deportation. Morgan Wild, Chief Policy Adviser at Labour Together said: 'The state makes everyone, whether they are a British citizen or not, prove their right to work or rent. "But we don't give everyone with the right to be here the ability to prove it. That leads to discrimination, unjust deportation and, as happened in the worst Windrush cases, dying in a country that is not your own. Through a national effort to provide everyone with proof of their right to be here, BritCard can stop that from ever happening again.' The think-tank's paper argues that BritCards should initially be rolled out for right-to-rent and right-to-work checks. It says this would support the Government's clampdown on irregular migration and those living in the UK illegally. Polling for Labour Together suggests around 80% of Brits support the idea for the specific purpose of tackling illegal migration. The paper says it will help tackle forgery and discrimination by landlords. Kirsty Innes, Director of Technology at Labour Together said: 'A progressive society can only work if we have meaningful borders. BritCard would make it far harder to flout the illegal work and illegal rent rules, and far easier to identify and punish exploitative illegal employers and landlords.' Introducing ID cards was a pet project of Tony Blair's. He tried to bring in compulsory identification documents when he was PM. Last year he said: "We need a plan to control immigration. If we don't have rules, we get prejudices. "In office, I believed the best solution was a system of identity so that we know precisely who has a right to be here. "With, again, technology, we should move as the world is moving to digital ID. If not, new border controls will have to be highly effective." But at the time Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: "It's not in our manifesto. That's not our approach."
