'Ensuring the police check the immigration status of anyone they encounter will show illegal immigrants they have no place in our country'

POLICE would be ordered to check the immigration status of everyone they arrest under Tory plans unveiled yesterday to deport 150,000 illegal migrants a year after leaving the ECHR.

- By Michael Knowles Home Affairs Editor

And a new Removals Force would use facial recognition technology to detect illegal migrants hiding in plain sight.

The teams based on the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency would monitor areas from hidden locations, poised to pounce on, detain and deport people living illegally in the UK.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told the Daily Express: "There are over one million people in this country illegally, and there are 20,000 serious foreign criminals who should be deported.

"The only way we will end this and remove them is to leave the ECHR. Ensuring the police always check the immigration status of anyone they encounter, especially foreign criminals, will show them and illegal immigrants that they have no place in our country." Mr Philp spoke as the Tories launched a seven-point plan to fix Britain's migrant and asylum crisis on the first day of the Conservative Party conference in Manchester.

The plan states: "Removals Force will have double the budget of the current Immigration Enforcement.

"This will be funded by closing the asylum hotels and the wider costs of our out-of-control asylum system, which amount to £4.76billion a year.

"This Removals Force will have sweeping new powers. For example, we will change the law to allow the Removals Force to use facial recognition systems without warning signs to identify, detail and remove illegal immigrants.