The ABF has revealed that it routinely conducts operations like the one it abandoned on Friday in Melbourne. This is despite the fact that the Migration Act provides no scope for officers to demand visa details from people who happen to cross their path.

Section 188 of the Migration Act essentially states that identity documents may be requested when an ‘officer knows or reasonably suspects’ a person is a non-citizen.

How would an officer know or suspect that a person is non-citizen, without a tip-off? Racial profiling makes for easy targets. Perhaps even spotting someone reading a foreign language book, may be good enough. Such are the wide-powers under s 188. To make things worse, s189 allows the officer to arrest that person if the officer suspects that person is an unlawful citizen.

In explaining the failed Operation Fortitude, an ABF statement pointed out that, “Joint operations of this type are common and were previously conducted by Departmental immigration officers.” Surprisingly, there hasn’t been much discussion in the media about what may well be illegal operations whereby innocent people are confronted by these officers to give up their identity documents, where there may be no need to do so.

Leanne Weber ARC Future Fellow in Internal Border Policing at Monash University in an article in The Conversation says that ABF officers acting on suspicion by way of tip-offs from the police, do so with ‘little scrutiny’. This lack of scrutiny, Dr Weber says has led to the deportation of several overseas born Australians, including Vivian Solon and Cornelia Rau.

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.