EU Moves To Expand Deportation Powers, Echoing ICE Tactics

By Staff, Agencies

The European Union has approved a new deportation law that expands immigration enforcement powers, including home raids, longer detention periods, and transferring undocumented migrants to offshore return hubs.

Agreed by EU institutions, the regulation is part of a wider migration overhaul aimed at strengthening enforcement against rejected asylum seekers, visa overstayers, and other undocumented migrants.

Under the new rules, national authorities will gain wider powers to enforce deportation orders, including the ability to search homes and other premises and seize personal belongings where necessary to ensure compliance.

Deportation detainees deemed uncooperative or likely to abscond could be held up to 30 months, while non-compliant individuals may also face reduced benefits.

The regulation expands enforcement powers, allowing detention of families and unaccompanied minors in limited cases, imposing lifetime EU entry bans for security risks, and strengthening return rules amid low deportation rates.

EU officials say the changes aim to improve migration control, with Commissioner Magnus Brunner calling it a step toward better management of who enters, stays, or leaves the bloc.

The new law allows offshore return hubs outside the EU to hold undocumented migrants before deportation, with talks already underway with several African countries.

While supporters say the hubs would streamline returns and ease pressure on migration systems, critics raise concerns over their operation and safeguards.

Human rights groups and some EU lawmakers say the law mirrors US-style immigration enforcement, citing weaker safeguards and longer detention, while supporters argue it targets those with no legal right to remain in the EU.

Rights groups also warn the law could increase prolonged detention, family separation, and harm to migrants, while the EU advances a broader migration overhaul aimed at boosting deportations and preventing a repeat of the 2015 crisis.