Labour officially backed the Bill when Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced that the Party would not oppose, but “amend and reform”, the Bill. The second reading vote was passed by 303 votes to just 18, as Labour abstained.

The Movement Against Xenophobia (MAX) organised a demonstration opposite Parliament on the morning of the second reading. Speaking at the rally, political director of Unite Jenny Formby said that the Bill “isn’t just an issue for migrants. This is an issue for all of us who care about democracy.”

Anti-racist activist Lee Jasper labelled the Bill “divisive” and warned of a return to the shameful period of “no blacks, no dogs, no Irish”. This is in reference to the proposals to deny undocumented migrants access to private housing, via the requirement for landlords to check the legally resident status of tenants. This attempt to restrict the basic right to housing on the basis of nationality and legal status should be denounced.

Similarly, the Bill seeks to deny access to bank accounts and driving licenses. Further, under the fraud of stopping alleged “health tourism”, a proven myth*, the Bill introduces a fee for access to the NHS. This fee, widely speculated at around £200, is to be payable by temporary, legal, migrants originating from outside the European Economic Area.

In addition, the Bill significantly removes grounds for appeal to decisions on immigration and deportation.

Under the banner of “fairness”, the aim is to deny basic human rights and the provision of services to national minorities. It drafts landlords, bank employees, health and other workers into immigration control and the checking of papers, inevitably driving vulnerable sections into desperation, creating the conditions for discrimination, division and further exploitation.

The Bill is a state-organised racist attack and affects the rights of all. By attacking one section to attack all, using the politics of division, it is part of increasing arbitrariness

and unaccountability by introducing fees and the checking of status at all levels. It contributes to a general atmosphere of suspicion and other negative emotions intended to bolster an authority out of step with the conditions and wear down any opposition to the agenda of austerity.

The Bill comes in the wake of the broadly condemned anti-immigration vans, telling national minorities to “go home”, which the government was ordered to removed from streets earlier this month due to their breach of advertising standards. It also comes after the previous week’s widely criticised government text messages telling “suspected illegal immigrants” to contact the Home Office.

The anti-human Immigration Bill must not pass. All democratic and justice-loving people must join in the movement to defeat this Bill and organise to defend the rights of all.