Amid the deepening crisis of imperialism, Britain, the US and the European imperialist powers are once again competing to secure the interests of their respective ruling classes. Nationalism and chauvinism are being whipped up in order to win over the masses to support ‘their’ country in the coming conflicts. Alongside this inevitably comes the growth of racism, providing the ideological justification to tighten immigration controls and further oppress migrant workers in order to maintain conditions of profitability.
A 2024 article by Zurich Insurance Group, a Swiss-based insurance company, estimates 1.2 billion people will be displaced by the climate crisis by 2050. Wars and armed conflicts will add to this number. People from countries systematically underdeveloped and impoverished by imperialism will continue to move into the imperialist heartlands in search of work and a better life. This is the context in which the imperialist ruling classes are collectively preparing to keep out and expel anyone who is not absolutely needed by capital.
British state – racist state
Under the pretext of ‘smashing people smuggling gangs’, the Labour government has set into motion plans to further militarise Britain’s borders in collaboration with the French state. In April, the British government signed a £662m deal with France that will see British riot police deployed to French beaches to attack migrants who attempt to cross the Channel. The deal will also increase the number of officers hunting migrants in northern France by 42% to around 1,100. France will deploy drones, helicopters and a camera system to assist in intercepting people. A removal centre capable of holding 140 people will be built in Dunkirk as part of the deal. The stated goal of all this is to deport hundreds of migrants from France a year.
The British and French states have blood on their hands. Displaced people desperate to claim asylum in Britain and escape the squalid conditions in French refugee camps are forced to pay smugglers to make the dangerous journey because it is impossible to reach Britain otherwise. Between 2019 and 2025, 162 people have died attempting to cross the Channel. These deaths have been cynically exploited by ruling class media and the state in order to further criminalise asylum seekers and further militarise the border – this will only kill more people attempting to cross the channel.
Fortress Europe
Frontex – the European Border and Coastguard Agency which is headquartered in Poland – has joined hands with the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) to guarantee EU Member States a more militarised and belligerent handling of migration at the borders. Alongside this, the European Commission will double Frontex’s budget to €11.9bn from 2028.
On 22 January, the two agencies signed a new cooperation agreement to support the incoming EU Pact on Migration and Asylum. The pact legitimises further deterioration of people’s right to seek asylum, more detentions, more attempts to outsource asylum processing to non-EU states, and increased biometric mass surveillance. It builds on the EU Council’s decision in 2025 to expand the circumstances under which an asylum application can be rejected without being fully examined and to remove appeal applicants’ right to remain in the EU while their case is reviewed.
The shift towards making deportations easier to carry out is being endorsed at the judicial level. In May, the Council of Europe adopted the Chișinău Declaration, which manipulates how European courts can interpret and apply human rights in migration cases – particularly Article 3 (Prohibition of Torture) and Article 8 (Right to Family Life).
Like Britain, the EU is reducing access to asylum and accelerating expulsions while presenting this as a humanitarian necessity. Responsibility for state violence is deflected to traffickers, while European states expand detention, surveillance and deportation powers.
US imperialism: a bastion of reaction
Addressing representatives of Euro-pean governments at the Munich Security Conference in February (see FRFI 311: ‘America First’ imperialism), US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated:
‘In a pursuit of a world without borders, we opened our doors to an unprecedented wave of mass migration that threatens the cohesion of our societies, the continuity of our culture, and the future of our people…[mass migration] was and continues to be a crisis which is transforming and destabilising societies all across the West.’
Through violent, racist policing carried out by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), the US state has imposed a reign of terror on all migrants. The nature of ICE operations extends this to all ethnic minorities regardless of citizenship status. In 2016, the budget for ICE was around $6bn. At the beginning of 2026 its budget was $85bn, making it the most well-funded US law enforcement agency. On 8 May, the US Congress allocated an extra $72bn of funding to immigration enforcement agencies through to 2029; this includes $38.2bn to ICE.
ICE has been transformed into a state paramilitary. Its agents come armed with helicopters, flash bangs, pepper spray, tear gas, guns, riot gear, armoured cars and more. These were employed with brutal effect during ‘Operation Metro Surge’ which saw the city of Minneapolis occupied by ICE agents between December 2025 and February 2026.
NBC News’ ‘Deportation tracker’ lists over 60,000 migrants in ICE detention as of 9 April. Daily arrests by ICE have more than doubled since 2024, 2025 saw 881 migrants arrested a day and 2026 has seen an average of 1,121 arrests a day. In 2026, 18 deaths have been recorded in ICE custody. The Trump administration now boasts of deporting 443,000 migrants between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026.
Here to stay – here to fight
The working class has no choice but to fight back. We must take inspiration from the uprising in Minneapolis led by the racially oppressed sections of the working class which directly confronted ICE agents occupying the city and defended migrants from detention and deportation. Resistance has continued throughout the US. On 22 May, around 300 migrants incarcerated at Delaney Hall, an ICE detention facility in New Jersey, went on hunger and work strike to protest the inhumane conditions and demand their cases be processed. Facing down violent attacks by ICE agents, hundreds of anti-racists have been demonstrating outside the facility in solidarity.
This is the movement we must build in Britain. The starting point of any opposition is the recognition that in imperialist countries, all immigration controls are racist and must be opposed – this is the basis on which a fightback against the imperialist state can take place.
Kotsai Sigauke and Leonora Reed
