Source: Radio New Zealand
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford. RNZ / Mark Papalii
Government documents show changes aimed at strengthening deportation levers could disproportionately affect Pacific Island nationals, but the Immigration Minister says that won’t happen.
Erica Stanford said it was “not about racial profiling, it never has been”, but the Greens are concerned the “MAGA-loving immigration Bill” could scapegoat migrant communities.
The Immigration (Enhanced Risk Management) Amendment Bill was up for its first reading at Parliament on Thursday, and will give immigration officers the power to ask suspected overstayers for identification in homes and workplaces.
The government said it was closing a compliance gap in the deportation system, while critics argued it was a step towards the immigration conditions that had allowed the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids seen in the United States.
Proactively released documents by the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment show a paper outlining further decisions on the Bill.
It noted the population groups most likely to be “potentially liable for deportation” had historically been Pacific Island nationals.
“As a result, the proposal to expand the powers of immigration officers to request identity information from those they have ‘good cause to suspect’ may be liable for deportation, could disproportionately affect these same population groups.”
Stanford rejected the suggestion the Bill would lead to disproportionate impacts on Pacific communities, saying it was a “really small technical change” in very “limited circumstances”.
“This is not about racial profiling. It never has been,” she said.
Stanford explained that currently immigration officials who come across people “hiding” or “jumping out windows” or “escaping” aren’t able to ask them for identification documents.
“This is not about randomly stopping people on the street or targeting them because of their ethnicity. This is a particular behaviour in a particular situation, and it was a request from immigration officials for that change.”
She said she wasn’t scared of history repeating itself.
Greens immigration spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The Greens immigration spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March said he was extremely concerned the “MAGA-loving immigration bill” would scapegoat migrant communities.
“The government is taking a Trump-like approach to immigration by targeting undocumented migrants, including our Pacific communities, who have already faced the intergenerational damage of the Dawn Raids.”
He said the government had been advised that Pacific people will be disproportionately affected by the bill and it needed to be scrapped.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
