By Colin Ambler/cvnznews.com
ACT is sharpening its case for a dedicated overstayer enforcement unit, after senior Labour MP Phil Twyford told 1News he would not support creating a specialised team within Immigration New Zealand.
ACT Leader David Seymour said Twyford’s position ignored the scale of the problem. “Phil Twyford says we don’t need a dedicated overstayer enforcement unit because Immigration New Zealand already has a compliance and investigation team,” Seymour said. “The problem is we still have 20,980 known overstayers in New Zealand. Maybe Labour thinks this is okay, but ACT thinks twenty thousand overstayers is evidence the current system isn’t working.”
Seymour argued that Immigration New Zealand’s current structure is too broad, with staff responsible for everything from employer breaches and migrant exploitation to fraud, trafficking and visa violations. “Those are all important jobs, but when everyone is responsible for everything, nobody is properly accountable for one thing,” he said.
ACT’s proposal would create a unit focused solely on overstayer detection and verification, including working with platform‑based employers such as Uber and DoorDash to ensure workers have legal status. Seymour said this approach would enforce the law “fairly and practically.”
The plan has drawn criticism from the Green Party, with MP Ricardo Menéndez‑March accusing ACT of pushing an enforcement model similar to the United States’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Seymour rejected the comparison. “The Greens have breathlessly claimed ACT wants to bring ICE to New Zealand. This says more about their obsession with American politics than it says about ACT’s immigration policy,” he said. “This is New Zealand. We can enforce New Zealand law, in a New Zealand way, without importing every argument from cable news in the United States.”
Seymour said elected governments had set the rules and that enforcing them was a matter of democratic integrity. “If Labour and the Greens don’t like the rules, they should be honest and campaign to change them.”
The political clash sits within a wider national conversation about migration, belonging and responsibility. In Scripture, the call to “welcome the stranger” appears alongside commands to uphold justice and maintain order within the community. The tension between hospitality and accountability is not new: biblical societies were instructed to care for foreigners while also ensuring that laws were applied consistently.
As New Zealand debates overstayers, enforcement and compassion, the biblical lens highlights a familiar challenge — how to uphold the law while treating every person with dignity.
