Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Simon Laurent: Immigration lawyer on criminals with a New Zealand residency could now face deportation

Transcript

Simon Laurent: Immigration lawyer on criminals with a New Zealand residency could now face deportation · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Well, we're still on the migration and immigration issues right now,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: right here in New Zealand, with Ericus Stamford sending a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: clear message to immigrants obey the law or you're gone.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Criminals with New Zealand residency could now face deportation for
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: up to twenty years after arriving. Now that has doubled
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the current limit, So well this work or not. We're
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: joined by Simon Lawrence, who is an immigration lawyer. Simon,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: good morning to you.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Was this a needed change to our immigration law because
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: a lot of the critics have already said it seems
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: pretty vague.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Yes, Well, that was the first impression that I had
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: when I read this. I think it's necessary to see
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: what's the wording of the bill itself, which hasn't even
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: been introduced yet, to see what the mechanism is really
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: going to be and how.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Many migrants actually decide to commit crimes after living here
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: for over ten years, because surely they might have been
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: criminals before they came here.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Well, that's a separate issue because there are other there
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: are others who have committed criminal offense. This is a
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: long time ago which this bill seeks to sweep up
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: and the classic case which I think has influenced this,
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: as that of Carl Strubik. But in respect of those
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: who might have committed offenses a long time after they've
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: arrived here and obtained residents, as the minister said yesterday,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: probably not very many. And in fact, the other issue
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: is that quite a lot of those would probably have
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: gone on to get citizenship. So a change to the
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: immigration rules is not going to affect them.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Yes, that thing, this is about residency. But there are
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: immigrants who come here. I'm one, I was born in
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: the UK. We come here and we get citizenship. Now
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: will they be effective? If someone's been living here for
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: ten years, why would they not just go out and
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: get the citizenship and then we can't touch them anyway?
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: That's exactly it. And I mean there are people who
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: sat here as residents for twenty thirty forty years who
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: never gets citizenship. They don't need to, never occurs to them.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: They don't want to lose their birth citizenship. So there's
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: a few of those. How many of those commit serious
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: enough crimes? It's probably a very small number.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: And do you think this is just politics because there's
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: so much talk about immigration. We just talked about it
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: with Vincent mcavinnie. We've got the protests happening in the
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: UK and Australia. Is this a political response to a mood.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: It's a response to a mood and an approach which
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: is sweeping through what we might call the liberal democracies
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: over the last couple of years in particular. And I
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: think I also thought of the way that Australia has
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: been throwing out the five O one deportees, and I
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: sense that this is all rather reactive.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: I have to say, isn't the bad press for immigrants
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: is well, it's unfortunate because they are so crucial for
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: almost all the country's economies.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: They're certainly crucial to New Zealand's economy, something that the
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: government must never forget.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Okay, And on a separate there's twenty thousand illegal overstayers
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: currently in this country. Do we need to do something
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: about that?
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Well, there's been twenty thousand illegals overstayers as long as
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: I've been in business in this field, which is about
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: thirty years, so this is no surprise at all. It
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: fluctuates back and forth. It was about fourteen thousand prior
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: to COVID. Yes, of course, something should be done. Suggestion
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: has been made about having an amnesty year that I'd
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: probably support that. However, the last time we had one
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: in two thousand and two I think it was, it
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: didn't actually make a huge difference to the ultimate numbers.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: There's always a sort of a tranch of people who
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: who will just outstay their visas.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: All right, Simon, I thank you so much for your time.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Simon Laurence here is an immigration lawyer, Chaier of the
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: New Zealand Association of Migration and Investment.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: For more Familily edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: news talks. It'd be from five am weekday, or follow
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio