Green party-led Lewisham council is planning to ban cooperation with the Home Office on ‘ICE-style’ immigration raids.

Councillors will vote next Wednesday on a motion to conduct a review “with the explicit aim of refusing to assist immigration enforcement wherever legally possible”, the party said in a statement.

The review would examine data-sharing and service agreements to ensure there is a “firewall” between council services and immigration enforcement. It will also look at any contracts the council has with groups helping to facilitate raids.

The homelessness charity St Mungo’s may be included in the review after it was found to have shared information with the Home Office about migrant rough sleepers in 2019, the Guardian reported.

The motion would also commit the council to supporting the Lewisham Anti-Raids network “by helping migrant businesses and people targeted by raids understand their legal rights… and ultimately prevent and resist raids,” the Green party said.

“ICE-style immigration raids tear people away from their families, their neighbours and their communities and have no place in a decent society,” Green party leader Zack Polanski said.

“I’m proud of brave, compassionate Green councils in London working to create a corridor of sanctuary where nobody, no matter where they’re from or what papers they have, has to live in fear of being snatched away from the place they call home.”

Lewisham declared itself a “borough of sanctuary” in 2021, but figures obtained by Lewisham Anti-Raids showed the Home Office carried out 177 raids there last year.

After Labour lost control of the council to the Greens in May, officials uncovered a 2023 email in which an immigration enforcement official asked the council for help “carrying out joint operational visits”.

The Labour government has bragged about increasing immigration raids on businesses by 77%, with an 83% increase in arrests.

“We are doing everything in our power to protect our diverse communities from Labour’s anti-migrant onslaught,” said Lewisham mayor Liam Shrivastava.

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