Immigration Raids & Protecting Residents: What Councillors Need to Know
A short briefing for UK local elected members
What are immigration raids?
Immigration Enforcement conduct raids in homes, workplaces, high streets, transport hubs and community spaces. They often arrive unannounced, early in the morning, or during trading hours, questioning and detaining people on the spot.
Our research shows that raids are increasingly used as a tool of repeat harassment and intimidation against racialised and migratised communities in the UK. Some political parties have also proposed a dramatic expansion of immigration raids and deportations, making comparisons to the way that ICE functions in the US.
While raids have already been increasing in the UK, the environment could deteriorate further in the future, which is why it’s important for councillors to act now.
Why this matters for councillors
Local authorities can be drawn into complicity with this violence through data‑sharing, joint visits, or multi‑agency operations.
Raids erode trust in councils, schools, health services and community organisations.
They create fear and precarity in communities, discouraging people from reporting exploitation or accessing support, and impact businesses that experience raids.
What this looks like across the UK
21,915 raids took place between October 2024 and September 2025, up 38% from the previous year.
Raids are usually concentrated in town and city centres, racialised neighbourhoods, and transport hubs.
Intelligence is often based on malicious public tip‑offs, low‑quality information, or racial profiling.
Only a tiny minority of people subject to a raid are found to be in contravention of immigration laws. For most people, raids have the more significant effect of causing trauma and fear in migrant and racialised communities.
What councillors can do
1. Protect residents
Affirm that your council does not support immigration raids.
Ensure staff understand they are not required to share data with the Home Office except where legally mandated - councils across the UK are already doing this
Promote clear guidance on residents’ rights during raids.
2. Scrutinise multi‑agency involvement
Examine any joint operations involving environmental health, licensing, trading standards, housing or community safety teams.
Ask:
Are council officers attending visits with Immigration Enforcement?
What data is being shared?
Who authorised this cooperation?
Local authorities do not have to cooperate with Immigration Enforcement - many, in fact, don’t take part in multi-agency operations or share data with the Home Office
3. Strengthen community resistance
Support local anti‑raids groups and community legal education, request a copy of our anti-raids report info@migrantsrights.org.uk.
Encourage businesses and residents to know their rights and document enforcement activity.
Work with trade unions, faith groups and migrant organisations to build rapid‑response networks.
4. Demand accountability
Push for published data on raids in your area.
Challenge racial profiling and the use of low‑quality intelligence.
Call for an end to data‑sharing agreements that undermine community safety
Immigration raids are a form of racialised state enforcement that undermine trust, safety and community wellbeing. Councillors have real power to limit local cooperation, protect residents, and ensure their authorities do not become part of, or continue to be part of, the Hostile Environment.
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