Australia expands Border Force to detain visa overstayers – not an ICE‑style raid

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told the National Press Club that a new 100‑person Border Force team and 250 additional detention beds will be created to target roughly 77,000 people who have stayed beyond their visas.

The government says the extra capacity is meant to encourage overstayers to leave voluntarily and to bring back the pre‑2015 “soft” detention approach that focused on quick, targeted removals.

Peter van Vliet, chief executive of the Migration Institute of Australia, stressed that the plan does not involve ICE‑style raids. He described it as a return to the earlier, carefully targeted system that was uncontroversial before 2015.

Since 2015, Australian detention centres have been largely reserved for criminal visa holders, which reduced the space available for non‑criminal overstayers and changed the overall enforcement landscape.

Greens senator David Shoebridge warned that expanding detention capacity echoes former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s policies and raised concerns that private‑prison operators could be involved in running the new facilities.

Burke also said the government will look at repurposing existing sites, such as the former quarantine facility in Melbourne, to house the new beds, aiming to make overstayers face clear consequences for remaining illegally.

Overall, the announcement seeks to restore a compliance system that existed before 2015, offering a “stick” to prompt departures without adopting the large‑scale, forceful tactics associated with U.S. ICE operations.

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