The top brass of the ABF and even the minister in-charge have denied knowledge of the news release which announced the joint ABF and Victorian Police operation which among other things would have profiled people and stopped them on the streets of Melbourne to enquire about their visa status.

However The Guardian reports that, “The “very, very badly worded” Australian Border Force press release that appeared to threaten random visa checks on the streets of Melbourne was twice sent to the office of the immigration minister, Peter Dutton.”

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, described the saga as one of the government’s most “catastrophically silly” ideas on Saturday.  I don’t think there’s a single Victorian and indeed a single Australian whose jaw just didn’t hit the ground.”

The Greens called for the powers of border force officers to be clarified. “It needs to be cleaned up; they’re not an arm of the military and they’re not a police force,” Senator Sarah Hanson-Young told the ABC, adding: “It’s not clear at all what they think their role is, what indeed the powers are.”

The prime minister, Tony Abbott, said his department had no prior knowledge of the operation.

He said nothing untoward had happened except the agency had issued a poorly worded press release, describing it as a mistake and “over the top”.

Watch Eugenia Anang speak for and on behalf of Migration Alliance today regarding #OperationFortitude and the Australian Border Force (ABF):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00_Sd8Qlgv4&feature=youtu.be

This was supposed to be a standard police operation but it has been called off after the "unfortunate and inappropriate characterisation by the ABF", says Noonan, Minister for Police.

Controversial Australian Border Force visa checks, Operation Fortitude cancelled

"A major policing operation planned for Melbourne's CBD this weekend has been cancelled after a backlash over plans to include Australian Border Force (ABF) officials in the crackdown."

How embarrassing.  The Australian #BorderForce have cancelled their plans to stop random people and check their visa statuses in Melbourne tonight and tomorrow night, after protests build to a huge level. 

This is an excellent result and stands firm against racial profiling (despite the fact the ABF stated it would not be about racial profiling).

Latest news on #OperationForceBack: Controversial Australian Border Force visa checks, Operation Fortitude cancelled

Migration Alliance encourages Australians to protest by way of civil disobedience by way of unwarranted and excessive show of force.  We are calling the protest #OperationForceBack

Officers from the Australian Border Force (ABF) will be positioned across Melbourne tonight and tomorrow night and have said that they will be speaking with anyone they cross paths with.  

Under s189 of the Migration Act 1958 an officer must 'reasonably suspect' someone before they stop and search them.   Under the Migration Act, there is not a broad power to stop and search a person without suspicion.

The ABF can't issue a general warrant to cover the whole of the Melbourne CBD to in-effect give themselves 'open access' to the general public.

Is a person who is born in another country, but is then abandoned by their parents in Australia while still a child, entitled to Australian citizenship?

Our compassionate instincts may prompt us to think that the answer to this question should be “Yes” and that a person who has been left to fend for her or himself at a tender age should be given the benefit of Australian citizenship.

Whether one agrees with the proposition that there should be room to grant Australian citizenship on compassionate grounds or not, those feelings of compassion will conflict with the “hard reality” of Australian citizenship law as it now stands.  This was demonstrated by a decision of the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia that was decided late last week, SZRTN v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2015). The judgment in SZRTN effectively confirmed the interpretation of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 that was articulated in another similar case that was decided by a single judge of the Federal Court earlier this year, Nicky v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2015) FCA 174 (5 March 2015).