Meanwhile, in the UK….

UKPhoenix79, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

With all the recent drama regarding U.S. immigration (racism in refugee admissions and Title 42 rescission chief among them), missing out on the overseas migration drama is easily forgiven.

Let me give you a quick update on some of the haps with our friends across the pond: the United Kingdom.

The House of Lords recently debated The Nationality and Borders Bill, which has been kicking around since July 2021. It was initiated by members of the Conservative party in the House of Commons.

Punchline first, before substance: The House of Lords defeated the bill yesterday, though amendments were offered and, if compromises are made, it may yet still become law in some form or another.

So, what’s interesting about this legislation?

As the BBC reports, the bill would allow the government to strip an individual of their UK citizenship without telling them. This, as you might imagine, led to protests by UKers concerned that minorities would be disproportionately affected by citizenship-stripping and individuals would be left as “second-class citizens.” (Not to joke too much about a serious what-would-be-due-process problem in the US, but they wouldn’t be citizens at all under the bill, much less second class ones, amiright?) Anyhoo, the government said this was necessary to combat, you guessed it, terrorists, war criminals, and spies.

The UNHCR, meanwhile, had other concerns: the creation of “an asylum model that undermines established international refugee protection rules and practices.”

The pols return after Easter. We’ll see what happens then.

-KitJ