Will Nigel Farage copy America and introduce an ICE style force here? - Yorkshire Post Letters

Under President Trump the United States is turning into a fascist country where might is right and international and domestic law is ignored. One of the most alarming developments is the Immigration, Customs and Enforcement organisation with a $28bn budget which is more than the FBI. In recent months the number of ICE agents has increased 120 per cent to 22,000, with 200,000 applying to join.

ICE ‘officers’ do not wear proper uniforms but are heavily armed. They carry an automatic rifle and six extra magazines in webbing, a holstered hand gun, pepper spray, mace spray (illegal in the UK), stun grenades and gas masks, and wear Meta sunglasses.

Their training and vetting is minimal but it seems that the main requirement is a commitment to the MAGA agenda. They have at their disposal a vast network of surveillance technologies including one made by Palantir which harvests phone databases.

They have a facial recognition system of ‘suspects’ on ICE phones (often inaccurate). They use technology from the Israeli company Paragon to record phone calls and texts without a warrant, and using another Israeli company Cellbrite are able to unlock mobile phones. They have various other surveillance tools at their disposal, including I am sure others which are not in the public domain.

There has been a 2450 per cent increase in people without a criminal record being detained by ICE while 605,000 people have been deported.

We know that Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, is an admirer of Trump, and that his core policy is to deport 600,000 people from the UK when and if he gains the keys to Downing Street, after passing a Mass Deportation Bill.

Will Farage copy America and introduce an ICE style Gestapo here? Members of Reform support that idea.