In case you missed it: High Court upholds interim removal of EU national terrorism offender | Colin Yeo

"The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration invites anyone with knowledge and experience of the UK-France Agreement on the Prevention of Dangerous Journeys to submit evidence for the inspection." — Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration

In case you missed it: When can you get a refund for the immigration health surcharge? | Pip Hague

🧵 1. The Home Secretary has conceded that her decision-makers were directed by internal policy to apply an unlawful evidential threshold when deciding whether there are reasonable grounds to believe a person is a victim of trafficking or modern slavery.

New from FM: Home Secretary concedes use of unlawful evidential threshold in trafficking decisions | Ralitsa Peykova

New from Free Movement: Home Secretary concedes use of unlawful evidential threshold in trafficking decisions | Ralitsa Peykova freemovement.org.uk/unlawful-evi...

Oh well.

Comparison doesn't work here. Leads with refugees with residence permits being offered money to leave, which very few take up. Rather unsurprisingly. Then moves on to failed asylum seekers, who are offered a lot less in Denmark (£2,300) compared to new UK offer (£10,000).

"Open borders destroy trust" is just unthinking cliches The asylum chaos does not result from open borders. It results from a botched fantasy ban on asylum claims - to assert control + closed borders - leading to a 100k backlog + the hotels disaster. Visa rules tightended + numbers down loads

Yes. Net migration likely to stay negative until Year Ending June 2029 and then be positive again Year Ending December 2029 (a lot of graduate visa holders emigrate in the second half of 2028 because the last 2-year one and first 18-month ones overlap in expiry date for 6 months).

From yesterday: Home Office decision to remove public funds from Diego Garcia asylum seekers was unlawful, Upper Tribunal finds | Ben Nelson

www.theguardian.com/politics/202... More cases of British citizens being deprived of their statutory right to enter their country because they “can’t prove” they’re citizens, even though the reason they’re being refused entry is because the state knows they *are* British citizens.

An immigration judge has ordered the removal of Liam Consejo Ramos, a Minnesota toddler who was detained by ICE. The politics of citizenship might seem like the detail that distinguishes Liam’s story from the stories of our kids. But his innocence, like the innocence of all kids, is unimpeachable.

Tony Vaughan MP says the settlement reform should be abandoned, not tinkered with, as @ippr.org analysis shows it will increase child poverty by 60,000 - 90,000 yet not make a net fiscal saving at all, because 300k children will wait longer for settlement www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...

My book "How to be a patriot" is 99p on kindle until midnight www.amazon.co.uk/How-Patriot-...

OSCOLA 5th edition is out www.law.ox.ac.uk/oscola Changes spotted so far include: Adding Medium before Neutral Citation Not putting JSC (or SCJ) after UKSC judge’s names (CJ, MR, V-C, LJ, J, & DJ remain; ICC also there but no EJ) The end of Ibid More on web sources - and how to cite Gen AI

Interesting one. gardencourtchambers.co.uk/home-office-...

In case you missed it: High Court reiterates no right to consular assistance to leave Gaza under Article 8 | Caterina Franchi

Good thread on an obscure but important point.

The latest Parliament Matters podcast includes a look at how changes to immigration are, or rather, aren’t, scrutinised by parliament. It’s probably not a surprise that I really enjoyed being able to join the conversation.

From yesterday: Home Office fees going up from 8 April 2026, but child citizenship registration fees coming down | Jasmine Quiller-Doust

🧵 1. Can a partner's subjective fears of relocating abroad prevent a deportation order? The Court of Appeal says those fears are relevant but not sufficient on their own. Parvez Anwar Pantho has taken a look at this important ruling in a recent piece for us.

In case you missed it: New sponsor compliance duties you need to act on now | Christopher Dias

From yesterday: Closure of Surinder Singh route on 9 August 2023 was lawful, High Court says | Chris Benn

New from FM: Home Office decision to remove public funds from Diego Garcia asylum seekers was unlawful, Upper Tribunal finds | Ben Nelson

Today's IPPR report dismantles the "Boris Wave" welfare burden argument, undermining the whole earned settlement policy. I stand by what I said about it at last month's debate.

EARNED SETTLEMENT We must be a country that is true to our word, and we must be a Labour Party that stands up for the values of community, solidarity, equality and internationalism. youtu.be/ec6LL7McYG4

New from Free Movement: Home Office decision to remove public funds from Diego Garcia asylum seekers was unlawful, Upper Tribunal finds | Ben Nelson freemovement.org.uk/public-funds...

Yesterday afternoon RFUK hosted a multi-sector roundtable in parliament yesterday about the earned settlement proposals. We had an impressive panel of experts from @ippr.org, @unison.org.uk, @ucu.org.uk, @pcsunion.bsky.social, @rcn.org.uk, @jdportes.bsky.social, and Fragomen law firm

In case you missed it: Latest statistics show asylum appeal backlog exceeds 80,000 cases | Colin Yeo

New from FM: Home Office fees going up from 8 April 2026, but child citizenship registration fees coming down | Jasmine Quiller-Doust

In case you missed it: Afghan national’s job too remote from counter-narcotics objectives to qualify for relocation | Aiya Nakash

New from Free Movement: Home Office fees going up from 8 April 2026, but child citizenship registration fees coming down | Jasmine Quiller-Doust freemovement.org.uk/fees-up-from...

From yesterday: Subjective fears of family members are relevant but not enough to prevent deportation | Parvez Anwar Pantho

From yesterday: Job Ad: The Unity Project is recruiting a Specialist Immigration Caseworker (maternity cover) | Free Movement

New from FM: Closure of Surinder Singh route on 9 August 2023 was lawful, High Court says | Chris Benn

As the thread explains - no. There'll probably be more bullshit stories based on misrepresentations like this as all of the FTT's judgments start to get published online. And/ or FTT judges will write judgments as dryly & cryptically as possible to avoid that, making them more liable to be appealed

New from Free Movement: Closure of Surinder Singh route on 9 August 2023 was lawful, High Court says | Chris Benn freemovement.org.uk/closure-of-s...

New immigration fees from 8 April 2026 just out. Most fees going up by 6 or 7%. Settlement (ILR) going up from £3,029 to £3,226 per applicant (so £12,904 for a family of 4). Cost to Home Office of deciding each application: £523 (£2,092 for a family of 4).

The full text version of Rayner's comments on Mahmood's "earned settlement" proposals is very good indeed. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

From yesterday: Free Movement Weekly Immigration Newsletter #111 | Jasmine Quiller-Doust

In case you missed it: Upper Tribunal politely declines to hear the majority of immigration judicial reviews in Scotland | Iain Halliday

Forget 'watering down'. Ten years is just too long, and there is no cogent justification for it, even for new arrivals. Just put the whole lot in the bin.

If you want to understand how much power the Home Secretary has over immigration rules, including settlement, here’s a primer from me in March 2024 open.substack.com/pub/wewanted...

National Audit Office conclusions on the Afghan resettlement scheme, from a report out today: www.nao.org.uk/reports/inve...

In case you missed it: Why the latest attempt to deter asylum seekers won’t work | Wyon Stansfeld

From yesterday: Asylum support: what is available and what has changed | Zaki Sarraf

There is very unlikely to be anything to vote on. Changes will be implemented via the immigration rules - secondary legislation subject to negative procedure. People (especially MPs) need to understand this. The Home Secretary is operating unchecked.

New from FM: Subjective fears of family members are relevant but not enough to prevent deportation | Parvez Anwar Pantho

New from FM: Job Ad: The Unity Project is recruiting a Specialist Immigration Caseworker (maternity cover) | Free Movement