Why Oppose the Immigration (Fiscal Sustainability and System Integrity) Amendment Bill
This is not about integrity — it’s about control. The Bill expands ministerial power, introduces migrant surveillance, and turns immigration into a revenue stream — all under the guise of “sustainability.”
Here’s what the bill actually does, why it’s dangerous, and how it fits into a wider agenda of authoritarian drift and economic extraction from newcomers.
What This Bill Really Does
- Grants unchecked powers to the Minister: Allows broad “special directions” to override standard immigration rules with no judicial or parliamentary oversight.
- Introduces electronic surveillance of migrants: Enables body-worn tracking devices for people released under immigration conditions — even without a criminal record.
- Expands profiling by nationality and visa type: Visa conditions and rights can now vary based on where someone is from — legalising class-based discrimination.
- Redefines immigration levies as revenue tools: Allows money collected from migrants to fund unrelated sectors like healthcare and schooling — even if migrants can't access them.
- Silences refugee protections and rights to stay: Enables indefinite temporary status for those deemed a “threat” — even when deportation is unlawful.
Why This Threatens Everyone
- Turns immigration into a control apparatus: Migrants are no longer people to welcome — but liabilities to monitor, classify, and monetise.
- Undermines refugee protections and international law: People fleeing persecution can be left in limbo, without a pathway to settlement or appeal.
- Normalises invasive tech surveillance: Electronic tagging of non-criminal migrants sets a precedent for wider digital policing.
- Extracts money without representation: Migrants are being taxed to patch state deficits while denied equal access to public services or decision-making.
- Weakens trust in immigration justice: A fair and predictable system is replaced with ministerial discretion, hidden processes, and arbitrary enforcement.
The Bigger Pattern
This is not an isolated policy. It reflects a broader pattern: expanding state surveillance, shrinking oversight, and framing migrants as burdens or risks.
It comes alongside law reforms that privatise services, criminalise dissent, and centralise ministerial control — from fast-track approvals to deregulated labour laws.
Once the power to override rights is normalised here, it becomes a template for other portfolios. Immigration is just the testing ground.
If You Care About Justice
This bill is not about protecting the system — it’s about protecting power. It does not improve integrity — it abandons it. It does not serve migrants — it surveils and charges them.
If you believe immigration should be fair, not fearful…
If you believe newcomers are contributors, not commodities…
If you believe human rights and Te Tiriti apply to all people in Aotearoa…
Then now is the time to oppose this bill.
“When the law sees you as a cost — you’re no longer protected by it.” — Ukes Baha